Justina Pelletier Case Shows Public That Psychiatric Power is Out of Control

Justina Pelletier is a fifteen-year-old girl from Connecticut who was born prematurely and suffers from mitochondrial disease, a little-known and somewhat controversial metabolic disorder. For over a year, she had been treated for this condition, also afflicting her older sister, by Dr. Mark Korson, a well-regarded specialist in metabolic diseases at Tufts Medical Center. Last February, her parents, who had become alarmed when a heavy case of the flu led to a serious deterioration in the child’s condition, brought her to Boston Children’s Hospital. BCH is a teaching hospital for Harvard Medical School. The idea was that while there she would see her regular gastroenterologist, and her care would be coordinated by Dr. Korson.

Shockingly, she somehow came under the control of the Harvard-affiliated psychiatry department there, who proclaimed that they did not believe in mitochondrial disease, gave her a diagnosis of “somatoform disorder,” and refused to allow Dr. Korson to see the child or participate in her care. When the parents protested, the psychiatrists immediately petitioned the local family court, who immediately agreed to take away legal custody of the parents on the grounds of “medical child abuse.”

The girl is now in the psychiatric ward of the hospital, where she has been for the last ten months. Of course, it is almost certain that she is being given the usual drugs that almost all psychiatric patients are forced to take. Given that the child already has a metabolic disorder, and that psych drugs are notorious for disturbing the metabolic systems of the victims, Justina may well be in great physical danger.

It is impossible for me to describe adequately the horror of all this, and I am burned out with horror stories anyway. For those MIA readers who are not familiar with Justina’s situation, I urge you to read the following long and well-researched stories that appeared in mid-December in the Boston Globe, the city’s newspaper of record.

There is also a discussion in the “forum” section of MIA, initiated by “Cataract.”

This use of the courts to force parents to allow unwanted psychiatric interventions on their children seems to have been increasing lately. As a patients’ rights lawyer in California, I have received more and more complaints from parents who had their children taken away by the family court/”child welfare” complex so that their kids could have drugs forced on them.

I myself, as a six-year-old in a foster home, part of this “welfare” system, when my time came, was taken away from the only parents I had ever known and turned over to a famous child psychiatrist to be shocked and raped and tortured, and then left for dead, dumped into a state hospital for the rest of my childhood. The courts did not have to be involved, as my foster parents, who tried to protect me, had no parental rights to be taken away.

Later, as a law student and a clerk for a young attorney himself just two years out of law school, I saw the family court in action. Paul, my boss, had been appointed the attorney for “Tommy,” a seven-year-old, frightened and shy little boy. Paul, unlike a lot of the lawyers in that position who just take the money and do nothing, was a decent conscientious guy. He found several couples who were interested in adopting Tommy in spite of his problems. When Paul asked the judge for permission to have the prospective adoptive parents meet with the boy, the county counsel, representing “child welfare,” jumped up and said, “He can’t be adopted. He’s been molested!” And the judge nodded sagely and said, “Yes, Mr K., he can’t be adopted. He’s been molested.” I have told this story to many people, and they only believe it because they know me. Otherwise, they find it incredible.

One of the biggest reasons that travesties of justice like this can take place is that child custody cases are almost always heard in closed courtrooms, where the public, or the media, never see the outrageous decisions that are issued.

(In the case of Tommy, eleven years later, I was still doing some work for Paul, and one day saw a young man hanging out in Paul’s office. It turned out to be Tommy, who had just “aged out” of the “child welfare “ system. So I gave Tommy a copy of a short article I had written about my own experiences in the system. He looked confused and embarrassed, and I wondered why, Later Paul told me it was because Tommy had never been taught to read, in all the years the “child welfare” system had controlled his life. Instead of being allowed to grow up with a loving adoptive family, he had been drugged, bounced from institution to institution, and never been prepared to live on his own.)

So with all I know about and have experienced myself from this system, I am not surprised that Justina Pelletier’s parents have lost custody of their daughter because they resisted what the psychiatrists want to do to her. What I am surprised by is that there seems to have developed a lot of public outrage about this situation.

Outrage even though, or perhaps partly because, as well, of the involvement of Harvard psychiatrists in this situation. Harvard, an institution run almost entirely for the benefit of the “one percent,” even though it soaks up huge amounts of public funds, has a nearly four-century history of producing some of the most evil and powerful oppressors in American history, from Cotton Mather, the persecutor of “witches,” in the seventeenth century, to Dr. Joseph Biederman today. Biederman, who has testified under oath that he considers his place in the universe to be just below God, and who has openly solicited bribes from drug companies in exchange for phony “research” that would promote their products for use against children, is responsible for the drugging and labelling of hundreds of thousands of children, whose lives have been ruined.

What a perfect example of a psychopathic personality, by the psychiatric profession’s own standards. Doctor Biederman is considered a leader of his profession. No wonder that the profession is dominated by psychopaths. And these are the people who now demand that parents who resist what they want to do have their children taken away by the courts, who are all too eager to comply. (For more about Doctor Biederman and his colleagues, please see the recent article in MIA, “Neuroleptics for Children: Harvard’s Shame,” by Philip Hickey.)

This new awareness by people who would otherwise ignore the outrages of psychiatry is a very important opportunity for our movement to point out to the public what psychiatry is really about. As long as the public thinks that the only people affected by psychiatry are the weird psychotic killers that we psychiatrically-labeled people have been portrayed as, no one will care what is done to us. But this is a moment when we have the opportunity of showing that the unchecked power of psychiatry puts everyone at risk. There are few strategic moments like this, and our movement has to take advantage of them.

Several years ago, the widely-reported death of four-year-old Rebecca Riley as a result of massive psychiatric drugging from the age of two was a similar strategic moment. Yet our movement said and did nothing. Children and their parents abused by psychiatry is an issue that most people resonate to, and we must use this opportunity to educate the public. It’s a rare chance to get out of our little bubble, where we mainly preach to the choir.

Parents in the “mito” community have called for a demonstration in front of the courthouse on January 10. Although I live on the opposite side of the country and can barely pay my rent, I am going to do everything in my power to be there. I hope everyone who lives nearby will come to this demo and raise the issue of psychiatric abuse. It’s a chance to show that our issues make sense to ordinary people, as they too are threatened by the power of psychiatry, a power that has no place in a democratic society.

As my hero Frederick Douglass wrote many years ago, ”Those who profess to favor freedom but deprecate agitation are people who want crops without plowing up the ground…Power concedes nothing without a struggle.”

Yes, power concedes nothing without a struggle, and we have to focus whatever resources we have for that struggle in the most effective way possible. Let’s pay attention to this opportunity, and support Justina Pelletier and her parents in the best way we can.

Still Crazy After All These Years: Ted Chabasinski, now a patients' rights lawyer, was taken from his parents when he was six years old, experimented on with a course of electric shock treatment, and then sent to a state hospital for the rest of his childhood. He writes about the power of psychiatry and how it is abused, especially against children.

154 COMMENTS

As of now, the links to the Globe stories are a bit garbled. You can copy and paste them, then delete the parts that start with “blank.” I am sure this will be fixed later, but either you can do this or go to part 2 of the forum discussion of Justina’s situation, where “cataract” has posted the full text of the newspaper stories. Please don’t skip this important material, as it is full of important facts, plus it shows how seriously important Boston media is taking this.

UPDATE: The problem has been fixed. And again I urge you to read the Globe stories.

Hi Ted, Thanks for this. I help run a large according-to-means person-centred therapy service in Exeter, UK, and I have done a link and blog post on your article (this is our forum for posts/discussion on subjects of therapeutic interest and for making connections with other therapists and those interested in such themes):-

Ted, I plan to be there. I just heard about this from someone I met on Facebook via Laura Delano. I was stuck in the System for Three and a half DECADES! In the end, nothing they said made logical sense. Nothing. They tried to convince me I had a nutritional deficiency in antipsychotics. They tried to convince me, every time I complained about poor quality care, that my viewpoint was “paranoid” and that the few human rights laws we have that protect patients are “trivial.” They took away my freedom to make responsible adult choices. They incarcerated me repeatedly whenever I attempted to speak out. They threatened me and bullied me. I am only five foot one inch tall and have never broken the law. These doctors have wrecked my kidneys with their pills, and then lied about it and attempted to cover up their crimes. They should be imprisoned the way I was for years. I need a lawyer. I’ll come with a sign, most likely one that says, “Never, Ever Shut Up.” Julie Greene

So…I have been incarcerated in psych hospitalizations over 50 times…and I was a 15-year-old girl once. I was also, at the age of 21, brainwashed by the Moonies, and WALKED out after 10 days of heavy-duty brainwashing. I know of no one else…it was luck, not strength…don’t give me credit for that one. I had tried to communicate with others right before leaving, but to no avail. I see many similarities with the brainwashing within institutions and this is going to be a big part of my next book. Putting myself in Justina’s shoes right now….and as a writer, I tend to try to see things thru the eyes of my characters…I know she’s doing her best, hanging on. Probably confused, desperate to get anyone to listen….Anyone who listens and appears to “care” is “good guy.” Someone who appears to “care” (because they are being paid to act nice but Justina doesn’t know this) tells her she is mentally sick. She’s gonna buy into it. This pleases them. They praise her and tell her she’s a good girl, shower her with loving praise. They reinforce “sick” whenever she admits to it. See, this is going to continue and it’s going to be tough for her. I truly believed I was schizoaffective for decades. I’m totally not. Never needed the drugs. I asked for drugs in the 1980’s for my eating problems (which I refuse to call “disorder”) not for anything else. I was only depressed because they were abusing me for years and insisted I had a “Jewish problem.” No, this “Jewish problem” was the thousands of dollars they stole from my parents for their “care.” My dad told me, before he died, that I’d make something of myself someday. I’m doing it, Dad. Love ya.

ive worked years u are correct and it enrages me .id live to shove a dose if risperidone and clozapune down their throats all while being tied up
as their lingo goes.its bad in fact uts worst than bad .i also have a sick brother who basically they have made sicker .from canada the bastards

I hope to meet you there, Julie. And your story (stories) of abuse, are really shocking to me, who has seen it all, and experienced a lot of it myself. It is no coincidence that these things take place at institutions connected to Harvard. The Harvard psychiatry department (and Harvard itself) are run by psychopaths.

Are you going to be there, Ted, and is it indeed going to be on the 10th or the 5th? I’ve changed my class in case it was the 10th. My psychiatrist was talking total nonsense in the end, getting totally insane. Yelling so loud and those walls weren’t that thick, someone must have heard. Oh, BTW, I tape-recorded some of my sessions with her, on the dates that I was positive I wouldn’t be sectioned and therefore wouldn’t get caught with a recorder. I don’t care if she’s currently reading this, doubtful. I suspected she was doing something wrong but couldn’t put my finger on it (this brainwashing is POWERFUL, you know? 3-1/2 decades of being convinced you are “schizoaffective”…and I wasn’t!) so I started bringing a recorder into sessions. I had never signed a paper saying I wouldn’t do this. Unfortunately, the day she was screaming at me I don’t have taped. I do have on tape her saying I’m “running manic.” Really? I wasn’t sleeping due to kidney insufficiency, which was right there on the blood test. I was lied to for a long time, possibly two years, just unsure right now. Kidneys were under 40%, now are under 1/3. I had diabetes insipidus from lithium for over 25 years UNDIAGNOSED and was told over and over that I was lying about being thirsty, to stop play-acting. Got dehydrated if I didn’t drink lots of water. Can’t be limited to what they were restricting me to at Mass General, or I’ll die. Wanna meet you, Ted, you are doing great things. Julie

That plus at Mass General they were monitoring patient phone calls, illegal in Massachusetts. Hung up the phone if they didn’t like what I said. Scrutinized me while I washed up and wouldn’t allow me to shower alone, also illegal in MA. Watched me on the toilet. This is routinely done to eating disorders patients. Eating disorders care is the most inhumane mental health care of all and I will never shut up about this. Total control of the body. Force feeding. Horror show and you are told you are lying and it’s for your own good.

Social services…agreed, mjk. I grew up here in MA but lived in VT for nine years. They were incompetent in VT and there were so many wrongful deaths at that time…scandals…I had to move and begged my friend to move, too… she was too scared…she committed suicide about a year later…those shrinks split town. I had come to Boston and it was around 1986 and I was immediately put in Metropolitan State Hospital. It’s in my memoir. Anyway, long time ago. I’ve been here since, done the McLean merry-go-round and endless shock…for what? I shocked them by going to college. Graduated summa cum laude. They told me (of course) that I didn’t belong in grad school, that I required “day treatment,” was warned that if I didn’t do this I’d never make it….really? The day I was handed my master’s, I told the audience of this foolery. My thesis advisor was in tears and it was one of the proudest moments of my life. Success is the best revenge. Love you all.

mjk, I hear ya…Do-gooders tell us to FORGIVE? Oh, please. You have lost so much and how do you tell someone you are NORMAL to be angry? And taking action is good and right. Sitting on one’s butt is like condoning the forced drugging. If we forgive, what happened to you and what happened to me will happen to others.

They told me last time they wouldn’t let me out of the medical facility where I was being held after my kidneys failed, (was not for psych), unless I took Zyprexa. How could they do this to a weak, emaciated person who was hardly the danger they claimed? Thank god I am not on it now.

Again, we are called “ungrateful.” I highly question the logic here if we are activists, and we want to do is to prevent further crimes against innocent people.

I need a lawyer but they are too busy, and they say it’s too much work, the case is huge.

I’m writing another book. That’s my solution to the “no lawyer” problem, that and getting hold of my medical records…if they release them.

If a psychiatry kidnapped my kid I would hurt at least one person responsible real bad and then just do the jail time for the assault. What would I get a year or two for kicking someones teeth out ?

My first day in prison would go like this > Hey man what are you in for ? Some shady ass Harvard “doctor” took my kid and forced him/her to take dangerous drugs so I went to his house and kicked his face in front of his wife…

I am so sorry to hear of that awful story! The most amazing and disgusting thing to me about psychiatry is that they don’t even bother to ask about what happened to you. I had a developmentally delayed girl who was 17 but mentally about 6 who was hospitalized with “bipolar disorder” and “treated” with Lithium, despite the fact that she had only started acting out after she’d been raped two years before. Another psychiatrist had been seeing a client for 15 years, said she was an “intractable case of depression” in which he’d “tried everything,” and when I asked him what had caused her to be depressed, he had no idea and wondered why I’d even bother to ask such a silly question.

They take away our power by taking away our stories and treating US like the ones who did something wrong. Well done for keeping up the fight despite it all, and thanks again for having the courage to tell your story. Are you getting any help with the situation with your girls?

Precisely. They don’t ask. I, too, was raped in 2008 by my neighbor and this was ignored by my therapist. I fired the therapist and my psychiatrist yelled at me for doing so and trivialized the rape, literally screaming at me over the phone (I have witnesses). I refused her pills and got yelled at for that over and over. She yelled at me for “not shutting up” and finally begged me to take pills, saying, “I’m giving you these pills so you will stop blogging about the abuse that happened to you.” The woman was leaving Mass General, where the gross MEDICAL abuse happened and there was so much coverup…on that “inner unit” they have and don’t want to admit exists. I was deprived of WATER. WATER. WATER. Was on my knees begging for it like an animal. This continues to happen and they do it for NO MEDICAL REASON. Their claim: “Protocol.” Not logical. Complete control of a weak and starving person’s body. Later, they lied and claimed I had had a sodium imbalance, not true, all coverup…they were doing the severe water restriction to ALL EATING DISORDERS PATIENTS ACROSS THE BOARD. I was on the verge of severe dehydration and split that place to save myself from death. Traumatized out of my mind and I’m not the only one, it has happened to others who want to take legal action, but this is a tiny program where weak and starved patients are isolated and incarcerated. I choose to speak out and WE NEED A LAWYER TO STOP THEM. I’ve been talking about this since 2011, called “crazy.” Yes, this is still happening.

Julie, I am horrified and wish I were surprised by your revelations. It is always dangerous to put anyone in the total charge of another group of human beings. It is so much worse when there are no real criteria for determining who or why or what can be done to “help” someone. To invalidate someone’s traumatic experiences in that way, not to mention continuing to traumatize the person year after year, is in some ways a worse crime than the original trauma, because these people are supposed to HELP! It is a total betrayal. I’m glad you’re still fighting and I’m glad you’re on the right side, because they will one day regret what they did.

mjk, I wish you were in Oregon and I could set one of my CASAs onto your case. I don’t know if we’d win, but we’d give them something to think about. I am impressed that you’re continuing to courageously fight despite the awful things that have happened to you! Let me know if there’s any way I can help.

CASA stands for “Court Appointed Special Advocates.” They are volunteers who advocate in child abuse/neglect cases where the State has assumed custody of children for their own protection (theoretically). You can bet that my CASAs are very well trained about psychiatric drugs and labels! And I’ve gotten a number of kids off psych drugs or kept them from getting on, and also helped create some scrutiny that did not exist back in the 90s when I started, including a new law and state policy. It’s a good place to do good work. Sometimes they’re called “Guardians Ad Litem.” I can see what they have in your area and get someone to call you if you’d like. We’ve also gotten kids back to moms when the State wanted to terminate their rights or keep them in foster care perpetually. I’m not guaranteeing anything, but a CASA can really help bring rationality back to a crazy situation.

Counting one’s blessings is always good, but not always easy. You clearly have some gift for determination and toughness, which is a great survival tactic! I bet your kids know you’re still out there fighting and they still love you and always will.

I was given an ultimatum: take the psych drugs or never see my kids again.

I said goodbye to my kids.

The state terminated my parental rights and THEN TRIED SUING ME IN COURT FOR CHILD SUPPORT (which was aggravated assault and a few other charges like harassment and cruel and unusual punishment and torture). They’re EVIL and they’re SADISTIC.

That is the reality.

Anything court appointed comes from the state and works for the state and NO THANKS.

AH, but we don’t work for the State. We’re a private nonprofit, and are watchdogs of the state.

They made your parenting contingent on taking psych drugs? That is just awful. I can truly say that I would not put up with that, and the judges here would not, either. Perhaps I do not appreciate how lucky I am to be in Oregon. Bad as it is, it sounds like our system is one of the best. Which is VERY scary…

“They made your parenting contingent on taking psych drugs? That is just awful.”

They had me jumping through any and every hoop they threw at me (they’re FRAUD).

It’s a really, really long, long, long story if I start telling it. And talking about it. It would take more than hours and more than days and more than weeks. And I’d get upset and angry. Oh, and if people can’t follow along and if they don’t understand then I’m really gonna get mad!

Honestly, the amount of resources that it would take (people, time, space, money) is just TOO MUCH.

This is how and why so many people like me *LOSE* so much. We can’t get ALL the right “help” that we need (and deserve).

Help Wanted (can’t afford to pay ya, though). I have to dig out that Michelle Obama speech…

It is all too complicated, isn’t it.

So we just lose. And that’s the end of it. Over. Lives destroyed, lives lost. See ya in the next life time.

“And even though my current life, trust me, is very different than it was and for most people — and I do know that; I know that right now I am living, as challenging as it may seem, in a very blessed situation, because I have what most families don’t have, is tons of support all around, not just my mother but staff and administration. I have a Chief of Staff and a personal assistant, and everyone needs that; that’s what we need. (Laughter.) Everyone should have a Chief of Staff and a set of personal assistants. (Applause.)”

Hi, cannotsay2013. Yes, I agree, some people on the right have very good positions on our issues. I was the Glen Beck material. I think the libertarian folks are better on our issues than the corporate Democrats. I am not conservative or a democrat, but I do consider myself a kind of libertarian. I think people should be allowed to do whatever they want if they are not hurting anyone. Psychiatry as it is now believes just the opposite of this. They are demanding absolute power over who can be free and who will be imprisoned. That’s why I think this demo is so important. Psychiatry is now going after ordinary people, and this outrageous project must be brought to the public’s attention.

The fact that Glenn Beck is on the same side on this issue doesn’t mean anyone here is “supporting” him. I am far from a conservative, but the fact is that our cause is often supported more by libertarian conservatives than by corporate liberals. (I am neither.)

Yeah, Duane, you ask a great question. Where is the left? In fact, the establishment liberals are the worst in terms of our issues. I remember someone posting on Facebook how great NPR is (also known as National Pharmaceutical Radio). When I pointed out how pro psych drug they are, and how E. Fuller Torrey is an honored guest about once a month, she kept insisting how great NPR is and that we shouldn’t criticize them. If NPR put out stories that were racist, sexist, homophobic etc., the people in those movements wouldn’t put up with it for an instant, and rightfully so. Why do we? It’s as if we don’t take our own oppression and movement seriously. I am happy to get the support of anyone. I don’t have to agree with their other politics 100 percent or even 5 percent.

It is not a left-right issue. Most of our congress is sold out to the moneyed interests. It’s about corporatists vs. those who believe that human beings are more important than dollars. There are plenty on both sides of the aisle who believe anything that will get them a campaign contribution, and the pharmaceutical companies are as ruthless as they can be in spreading their dollars around to all of the Repiblicrats who bow down to them, regardless of their “liberal” or “conservative” labels.

I agree about “right bashing,” but “left bashing” is just as unproductive. I’m more liberal than most who call themselves liberal (I actually BELIEVE in helping the poor and the downtrodden!) but I’ve been fighting this issue since the 90s, when everyone thought I was out of my mind for not supporting the “new science” of “brain disorders.”

I also lived in foster care, and sometimes its better than the alternative, plain and simple. Ted, I think you may be jumping to conclusions about the story you’re discussion. It seems the “jury” is still out, and besides, it wasn’t psychiatrists who initially intervened in this case. Child abuse is real, and I don’t think you can say with any certainty that it’s not what is happening here. “Fair and Balanced?”

As to you’re response to the above comments. You offer a plug for Glen Beck, and applaud your commenters for bringing in “right” perspectives, ostensibly including their calls for “kicking teeth in” and “ghetto justice.”

These are some reasons why I think Mad in America might just be doing more harm than good for “our” movement(s).

I’m a survivor myself, and I can relate to the rage, but I really think stuff like this is hurting “our” cause.

“I also lived in foster care, and sometimes its better than the alternative, plain and simple.”

My time in foster care was Hell, just exactly as it is for my oldest daughter (who was BORN in foster care). I went from one frying pan to another!! My girls would be with me now if only I would have OBEYED the doctors and took the psych drugs like they wanted me to. But at that point in my life, with almost 20 years of psychiatry’s brainwash and mind control and drugging, part of what got me into the situation was realization that PSYCHIATRY WAS ABSOLUTE JUNK. I had some sort of neuroleptic seizure just before my three kids were stolen from me. STOLEN.

Foster care is a HELL because the entire SYSTEM is a HELL. They DON’T do right! Any idea how many “CPS reform” groups there are out there? Families that DO want “help” DON’T GET IT. We get PSYCHIATRY.

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What is ever so particular about Justina Pelletier is that she was born with congenital band (for which she had surgery). The doctor said it’s mitochondrial disease. You have to remember, she has DETERIORATED while LIVING WITH DOCTORS for nearly a year. How DOES that happen?

—

“As to you’re response to the above comments. You offer a plug for Glen Beck, and applaud your commenters for bringing in “right” perspectives, ostensibly including their calls for “kicking teeth in” and “ghetto justice.” ”

Ted has not “applauded” Copy_cat or myself so you must have misread something.

“I’m a survivor myself, and I can relate to the rage, but I really think stuff like this is hurting “our” cause.”

I’m not offering a plug for anyone, just willing to take support where I can find it. As I said, I am pretty left myself, but left and right is almost irrelevant when psychiatric abuse is concerned. And I don’t support violence. Please don’t distort what I said. I support the right of all people to control their own lives, and to be free to do what they see fit as long as it doesn’t hurt other people.

I am not as willing as you seem to be to believe psychiatrists when they demand power over people

In the context of a discussion about abuse, someone responds by talking about how they would like “ghetto justice” or “kick his face in front of his wife,” an act that would almost certainly be extremely traumatic also for the persons wife-and you respond to these comments by applauding their mention of “right” politics?

Yes. I consider that a (not so tacit) endorsement.
Again, it wasn’t the psychiatrists who intervened in this situation. That is a distortion of the Globe story you posted.

Further, I think the “right” politics, the abusive comments, and the one sided “distortion” of complicated issues is endemic to Mad in America in general. Again, not helping “our” cause.

But what ever, I still think “The pen is mightier than the sword” cause if the general public knew what a dirty fraud psychiatry really is all its power and influence would disappear over night.

Parents are being mislead by a multi billion-dollar a year child drugging industry that a diagnoses of “mental disorder” stuff like ADHD, Bi-Polar, Social Anxiety Disorder are medical diseases or illnesses. This is a fraud. No child has a brain scan, blood test, X-Ray or any evidence of physical abnormality to verify they are “ill” or “diseased.”

People just don’t know that, they think psychiatry is real medical science.

Fight with intellect ? I would like to see first page google results for every mental health drug and diagnosis result in a link to a web page that informs the reader about all of pharmas dirty marketing tricks and crimes and explains the total lack of evidence to support the medical model.

The entire industry is built on fraud, the truth is its worst nightmare, so keep writing and hit them with what really hurts the most. The truth.

While I understand the reservations that people might have engaging with a Scientology affiliated group, CCHR is probably the most effective anti psychiatry organization there is today. Until a better alternative appears in terms of funding and scope, CCHR’s work is one of the few things that keeps psychiatric power under control.

Again, it wasn’t the psychiatrists who intervened in this situation. That is a distortion of the Globe story you posted.

Sure, this story IS complicated, and, yes, the Department of Children and Families obtained custody of Justina (if that is what you meant by “it wasn’t psychiatrists who intervened”), after a judge rubber-stamped their claims of medical abuse on the part of Justina’s parents, but those claims of alleged abuse are based on other claims made by Children’s Hospital’s psychiatric department – such as: 1.the claim that somatoform disorder is a real, existing condition, and 2. the further claim that Justina has it. And, after all, she is seemingly being held against her will on a locked psychiatric ward, with psychiatrists deciding her “treatment.”

Here are some quotes from the second part of the Globe article for which Ted provided links above:

“And the representative from the Children’s psychiatry service who played a key role in Elizabeth’s case was the same psychologist who had pushed to change Justina’s diagnosis to somatoform disorder, Simona Bujoreanu” (emphasis mine).

“A few days later, state workers gave the Pelletiers a ‘service plan’ that spelled out in writing what they would need to do to for the agency to consider returning Justina to their custody. Although the parents continued to reject Children’s doctors’ new psychiatric diagnosis for their daughter, the service plan made it clear that they would have to change if they wanted her back. ‘Parents must acknowledge and demonstrate an understanding of Justina’s medical and psychiatric needs as well as her emotional needs,’ the document stipulated, ‘including an understanding of her diagnosis of somatoform disorder’” (emphasis mine).

If Justina’s parents were really abusing her, why wasn’t she then placed in another foster home temporarily? Why is she still in a psych hospital after 10 months when people with her “alleged” condition are treated on an out patient basis?

If the support of Glenn Beck is troubling to you, what can you say about the detailed, two part story of the Boston Globe, a newspaper whose editorial board is as leftist as they come? Or the coverage by several local media in both CT and MA?

The more I have read about the case, the more I have reached the conclusion that it is a case that has all the elements of a psychiatric horror movie of the kind psychiatric survivors know all too well. My hypothesis is that CPS insists in keeping Justina away from her parents until she is 18 in hopes that she can be brainwashed in between as to avoid a lawsuit against them and the Boston Children’s psychiatrists who are big players in this travesty.

Does anybody here really needs to be convinced that the psychiatrists who ruined our respective lives would not look after their own interests above anything else, including the well being of a 15 year old, if faced with a potential malpractice lawsuit?

One cannot say that revenge is mean or cruel, just as one cannot say that one who engages in it is a bad person. Revenge is merely one person’s idea of “justice”, and therefore it is always “justifiable”, if only to the person performing it, who is retaliating for a wrong they believe has been done to them. Absent evidence to the contrary, or inappropriate use of force by them, there are few people who have a moral leg to stand on; if you’ve never felt the urge to avenge a wrong done to you or someone you care for, you’ve led a rather shallow life.

So how do we determine what level of force is appropriate? One may look at an act of vengeance and say that the magnitude of the revenge is unjustified, but this will always be determined by your particular idea of what would be appropriate. Traditionally, from ancient Iceland to feudal times and even today, the avenger takes matters personally in hand and fights back at the one that has done him wrong. It’s a justice system where the avenger functions as judge, jury and executioner. There are no “disinterested third parties”; merely one who has done wrong, and one who retaliates. (I’ve included the possibility of avenging a wrong done to someone you care for, which can motivate you to strike back even more than if you were the victim.) In any event, the avenger should the one that “really knows what has been going on”, and is therefore justified in his actions.

—–

The four main tenets of the ideal revenge:

1. Do unto others as they do unto you. (Let the punishment fit the crime.)
2. Don’t involve innocents. (Don’t hurt someone unless they hurt you.)
3. Be prepared to be caught. (Always imagine a worst case scenario.)
4. Think before you drink. (Think before you do, period.)

I don’t think I hurt the cause writing this stuff, I a merely pointing to the big fat elephant in the room no one talks about. People are hurt, people are angry and anyone who tells me they have never thought about striking back at an abuser is a lair.

I disgree. I don’t see MIA taking a stand on the Right or the Left. The fact is that neither Democrats or the Republicans are the friends of people who have experienced psychological and emotional distress. Both sides want to control and silence us in one way or another.

I did not see Ted agreeing that someone outght to have their teeth kicked in.

My question is why are psychiatrists involved at all in a medical case which has nothing to do at all with psychiatry? Psychiatrists are not doctors, much as they like to pretend that they are. They had no business getting involved at all.

How about these drug companies that are constantly loosing class action lawsuits, federal lawsuits or both for not disclosing adverse findings in clinical trials, lying about known health risks, directly causing death and chemical injury and even illegally marketing their most powerful and unpredictable drugs off label to children.

No one ever goes to jail, when the lawsuits roll in from the families of dead patients, they simply use a small portion of their windfall profits to settle out of court, admitting no guilt.

Yeah, those lawsuits aren’t REAL Justice. They’re just business transactions.

The way I think of it is, they BORROW money from whatever sources that bulk them up in profits and when it’s time to payback they get “sued”. I see it ONLY as business transactions. I mean, some new “leader” in / of psychiatry gonna apologize to only certain people, not everybody, and I’m supposed to think and feel WHAT, when looking for Justice?

Oh, then there’s that new legal action. Some new bill. How much of those monetary recoveries are going to fund the new bill? That money stays IN GOVERNMENT POWER since it is just BUSINESS, not JUSTICE.

I hope we can focus on how we can help this child, and how we can get the public to see that EVERYONE is threatened by psychiatric power. I am wondering why we are not hearing from people in Boston who are in a position to do the most about this particular situation. I am very disappointed about that.

Mjk, the state of Connecticut is VERY involved– from department of education to state senator!

However, a bit of info I recently uncovered shed new light on the ineffectiveness of some heavy duty allegations against BCH by these folks.

I was shocked to discover that there is a ‘club’ whose home base is the Judge Baker Children’s Center in Boston. JBCC is where HMS child psychiatry got it’s start in the 1950’s — used to be called, Judge Baker guidance Center– started by the first Juvenile Court Judge appointed in Boston in 1906– the center opened in 1917– a place for “juvenile delinquents”– better than jail? Not if you consider that ‘research’ was one of the selling points of this place.

So, about this club. It is called, New England Association of Child Welfare Commissioners and Directors (NEACWCD)… from the JBCC web page:

“Since 1984, Judge Baker Children’s Center has served as the home base for the New England Association of Child Welfare Commissioners and Directors.\, a consortium of child welfare agency leaders and staff members from Connecticut, Maine, Massachusettes, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.”

One big extended HMS psychiatry ‘family’.

So, seems like the buck always stops with “State welfare agancies”– no matter who else gets involved– and their allegiance is pretty obvious. It is interesting to note that the other cases of “BCH kidnapping a kid”, reported in the Globe, all come from a state whose child welfare agency belongs to ‘this club’

The take home message is that Justina is a ward of the “State”– New England is one big Harvard State!

Who are THE GROWN CHILDREN, the products of this great child welfare intervention club?

How does the club impact the lives of wards of the state?

I’m 37 years old and I still consider myself to be a ward of the state (government property). I have “disabled” status, housing through the “mental” system, social security cash allowance and a medicare card. I was a foster kid in Massachusetts (there was no “help”, I was psychiatrized) and I will “never see the light of day” (says a thing in my head, which constantly informs me). I’m one of those people who believe in “voice to skull”, “remote neural processing” technologies (synthetic telepathy). I think it is a government operation and that certain individuals are selected for the sinister “program”.

I used to go to Boston Children’s Hospital when I was a kid. I HATED it (and was not diagnosed correctly). I learned a few things about blood while I was there. Kids are amazingly smart. Super, super smart.

Is Justina an experiment? Did she meet their criteria?

—

I look at this and get a bit of a chill:

“Permanency

Examine the importance of stabilizing permanency for cross over youth and learn the array of services that will increase their success after their cases closes in both the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. In other words ensure every decision made regarding treatment of crossover youth prioritized for permanency considerations.”

My brother is not a failure of “the system”. He is a “criminal” by design. And I can prove it.

My brother is the “criminal”, I am the “sick retard” and my older brother is the shining Super Star, living the American Dream. Only two of us were foster kids and part of the system. Guess which ones.

Clever web site, isn’t it? Such fancy digs for the dirty work going on there! Who would question the sincere devotion of these philanthropists? But, hey where did they get all the $$$ it takes to run an operation like the JBCC and the Manville therapeutic school?
Hmm– couldn’t have anything to do with kick backs for snaring subjects, oops, I mean poor mentally ill kids who need drugs to keep their aberrant behavior in check? No, ‘course not.

Think of good ‘ol Judge Harvey Baker- feeling bad about sending kids to jail back in 1917— how could he have known that HMS psychiatrists would turn his little hole in the wall into the industry it is today?

I have read and heard this history lesson told as the best intentions of people of means with high moral standards. I have heard BCH psychiatrists talk about their “duty to care” as the reason for forcing drugs and “treatment” on kids who will be grateful someday— Still, I find it hard to see the logic, the rational consideration for the choices individuals should have or discern an ounce of respect for the dignity of everyone’s lives– even, or especially, a child’s life. Something unmistakably inhuman about ‘them’ all. No one in their right mind would grant them ultimate power over the fate of children !

And truthfully, WE did not grant psychiatrists this power. THEY devised a means for ‘playing God’– the perfect union: Juvenile Court, Child Welfare and Child Psychiatry.

We should feel extremely grateful to be part of the solution! I may even have the opportunity to meet you along the way 😉

In reality, the people call themselves “sheep”. What irks me is the stupidity I see in the video at 7:37 when one guy tells the other he’s being detained “because I can’t discern whether or not you’re an American citizen.”

I am in the Boston area and sent the links to the first news media coverage, Fox CT. Beau Berman broke the story on November 18th on Fox CT 10 o’clock News. All of the pertinenet details were covered in the first segment! The family acted on my advice to contact their local news station at the end of September.

I was contacted by the family at the end of April, 2 weeks after Justina was admitted to Bader 5. I agreed to be their advocate, but was never acknowledged by the Bader 5 ‘team’. However, I did meet with the DCF workers and spoke with them on the phone- though they, too adopted the attitude of not acknowledging me, since I was not in agreement with either the treatment plan or their service plan.

The following were my actions as family advocate-
1) Email to Bader staff and Justina’s clinicians with photos of Justina- an introduction to the family I realized they had not received via the neurology floor she had been fransferred from.In that email, I also outlined how her ‘direct’ admission had been intercepted; that Justina had agreed to a short hosp. stay before coming to BCH. I pointed out that the separation from her family was traumatic for them all. Simply- it was necessary to realize that even under less traumatic circumstances, we would expect Justina to have separation anxiety.I offered to facilitate communication for the purpose of decreasing the length of stay on Bader.

2) Receiving a hostile reply from the team, I instructed the family to request a formal ethics consult- focused on the refusal to collaborate with Dr. Korson, et al, and the question of legal status for Justina to be admitted to Bader 5. She did not- and does not meet criteria– which is why the term, ‘kidnapping’ definitely applies. Ethics consult was an encouragement for Dr Colleen Ryan, psychiatrist to reach out to Dr. Korson. However, regarding the legal status issue, though I sent an email to ethicist, specifically asking that the document be reviewed along with the psych eval done prior (by a psychology ‘fellow’ a day before admit to Bader). The ethicist told the family:”I have worked at BCH for 30 years. I have no reason to question your daughter’s admission to psychiatry.”

3. I contacted the director of licensing at DMH, Liz Kinkead. I requested a review of the legal status. At first Liz refused to talk w/ me, as Bader had informed her I was not recognized as the ‘advocate’and therefore permitted no ‘insider’ info. She did agree to listen. I explained that Justina had no prior or current diagnosis of serious mental illness, (Somatoform is not a serious mental illness. Inpatient treatment is not recommended as it supports the patient’s view of themselves as ‘ill’) In Justina’s case, her symptoms did not meet criteria in the DSM IV for Somatoform- in any case, she had no history of behaviors that put her at risk for harming herself or others.Liz replied”I am not going to challenge the medical expertise of BCH”.

Note: The medical expertise in the spotlight, glorified because it came out of BCH, is this:

The risk of harm to Justina is a matter of her parents seeking medical care from Dr. Korson.The psychiatric team asserted the need to protect her from her parents,who were not on board for their diagnosis.

Note to lawyers: In no way is this a legal containment. Commitment to a locked psych unit is based on MGL Chapters 1,2 & 3, Sections 10/11 and 12. The risk of harm has to be grounded in specific terms. To say that an adolescent is ‘at risk’ because BCH disapproves of the medical care her parents will seek– even to say that the medical care itself is harming Justina, there needs to be reasonable proof that this is the case. There is only the ‘medical expert opinion” of doctors who refused to even collaborate with Justina’s doctors! Therefore, she was locked in on Bader to facilitate total isolation from her family– from anyone, including her friends, who posed a ‘risk’ of believing Justina, who still wants to receive treatment from her own doctors! THIS IS ILLEGAL !

4. I had a few sustained dialogues with one of the DCF caseworkers. I encouraged their obtaining an objective medical and psychiatric opinion– for all of the obvious reasons. At one point in June, a caseworker said they may request this in court- though there is no reason why they would need a court order.When I mentioned this– dead silence. Apparently, as was suspected from day one, It was BCH, not DCF calling the shots for Justina.

5. Over the course of the first two months working with the Pelletier’s, I spoke with lawyers in the Attorney General’s office= in MA and CT; spoke with Nancy McCormick of the FBI in Boston. I specifically requested that they obtain the legal commitment document, have it reviewed by an independent psychiatrist, citing ALL of the reasons I knew this to be an illegal containment of Justina. Apparently the FBI Boston agent did speak to BCH president, Sandra Fenwick. “All is well, here” sufficed and no investigation ensued.

6. Neil Swidey of the boston Globe contacted the family the last week in May. I met with him and the Pelletiers at the Boston Globe on May 31st. Though presenting himself as passionate about holding ‘big powerful institutions accountable’,and promising an article in 3-4 weeks. Nothing appeared in the Globe– clear through the summer; through the Globe being sold to John Henry, Red Socks owner and close friend of BCH; through Justina being ill over Labor Day weekend and the family waiting in Connecticut to hear from a DCF worker IF she took a turn for the worse. By then, the family could not call Bader for updates; Justina was never allowed to call her parents on her own– only scheduled, supervised phone calls were allowed. I wondered if Neil was correct in saying that the readership of the Globe was down in the Summer; that after Labor Day made more sense. By September
16th, I was becoming suspicious of the lengthy Globe investigation- that did include visits to BCH. When Neil requested a family xmas video and the document of the closed CT DCF case from 2 years ago, I had ‘words’ with him via email, and began to urge the Pelletiers to seek their local news people.

Note: It was abundantly clear that the influence of BCH had afforded them a status we would call, “above the law”. I wrote a letter to the director of psychiatry David R. Demaso, requesting he apply his ‘expert’ status in psychosomatic medicine- as co-author of the text book “Pediatric Psychosomatic Medicine” published in 2010. Apparently this did not go over well– a week later I was spotted in the lobby of BCH talking with the eldest daughter while she waited for her parents who were visitng Justina. Both of us were escorted out by security. The following week, per the Pelletier’s lawyer, I was officially ‘removed’
from my role as family advocate.

Neil Swidey, who had spoken to me throughout the summer; requesting my assistance on numerous occasions- from the google sharing of the video my husband and I put together in June, when we attended a fundraiser for Justina (it is on her Facebook page)- to translating medical records and schooling him re: legal issues that pertain only to psychiatry; Neil knew that Fox CT was in contact with the family, and Dr. Demaso knew that there is good reason why he should be in the forefront of this case as a pioneer in Psychosomatic Medicine– or possibly knew that this might become known for all of its implications. In any case, I can say 2 things with certainty: 1) Neil Swidey left a good deal out of his novella length article, 2) Beau Berman and Glen Beck- specifically Liz Klimas who writed for The Blaze, have the clearest picture of this tragedy.

Writing with my MIA name here, still could wind up in hot water. Don’t care. Will be writing more of an article with an authentic byline. What I most want to communicate on this forum is that I have witnessed ongoing punishment every time the Pelletiers exercised their rights: visits taken away, phone calls taken away– the situation has worsened for them and Justina since media coverage- Coercion and Force is Bader’s treatment plan- changing behavior, changing minds. What can we do?

Focus on the loss of rights without due process- Judge Johnston dismissed Justina’s doctors during the appeal process– and BCH has yet to demonstrate that harm was done to Justina, much less that they are successfully treating her. I have said for months now that criminal charges should be brought against BCH for medical neglect and abuse of which there is substantial evidence.

As for BCH and psychiatry- the pertinenet history that maps out the ‘good ‘ol boy’ network that exists between HMS psychiatry, Juvenule court and DCF is upcoming– for now, I would suggest a review of Dr. Demaso’s impressive crendentials. His name tops the list: Developed by- on the “Parameter for Psychiatric Assessment of Physically Ill Children” (AACAP website- “Practice Parameters”)If you read these guidelines the troubling fact that none of his clinicians follwed them becomes apparent– but the deeper worry is that this is a new subspecialty of psychiatry as of 2003. The practice at BCH- to DENY the existence of a ‘new’ disease, to assert and take control via their ties with the juvenile court and DCF is NOT implied in the stated purpose of this subspecialty.

The goal should be to prevent another Biederman routine, IMO.

There cannot be a medical institution who usurps divine power over medical diagnosis–or denys the rights to choose the medical care they want from board certified, licensed physicians– EVEN if that does involve most cost to health care insurance co.s! BTW that is one of the selling points of the new specialty– as one of the published psychologists believes- that up to 50% of the high end users of pediatric/medical services have a form of psychosomatic illness. BCH cannot become synonomous with Divine Law– that they force submission and destroy dissenters has been the case for far too long! ( details of that network will be provided)

A locked psychiatric unit cannot be used to force a kid or her parents to accept ONLY BCH psychiatric treatment for an outpatient diagnosis of a kid who is at no risk of harm to herself or others. Neither can human rights be revoked on the basis of a BCH definition of ‘safety’ that is unlawful and totally absurd.

Judge Johnston should be reprimanded by our State supreme Court. Criminal Charges filed against BCH. David R. Demaso, who is the behind the scenes ‘wizard’ in the story, needs to come out from behind his curtain.

We, the people, can campaign for these very specific actions- advance the cause for ending psychiatric abuse of children- seize the moment!

Thanks for all the background information on this case. I have missed your voice at MIA in the recent period. It is very apparent that you have taken big risks in challenging the establishment in this case and speaking out publicly here at MIA. Your actions and courage are much appreciated.

Question: What about the role of Patricia Wen at the Globe who authored the three part series that came out last week? You make no mention of her involvement in this case. Have you communicated with her?

Ted and Sinead, I live an hour south of Boston and plan on coming to the Jan 10th demonstration that was mentioned earlier. I will discuss this with other activists that I know in this region to see if we can gather a contingent.

Just to clarify where I’m coming from on this issue. I am a billion miles in the opposite direction of Glenn Beck and his ilk.

I think it is sad situation when the radical right is the leading voice at this time in championing this particular cause; I am deathly afraid of the direction they would take this struggle or any struggle for that matter. I do believe in the course of protracted struggle many people on the right wing can and will be won away from that outlook.

For those who would come at fighting Biological Psychiatry from a different direction: we have a lot of work to do.

There is so much I cannot say regarding the torture this whole family has endured for nearly a year– the feeling of powerlessness in completely out of sync with everything that describes a humanistic, civilized society. I pity many people I know who are actually in a position to hasten the exposure of this scandal, but remain silent to protect themselves.

Rather than ‘gossip’ about Patty Wen, I will just point out something highly suspect about her reporting style.

December 17th her article about the deficiencies of DCF was a follow up “pass the buck”, or take the heat off of BCH story, IMO. The really strange part is that she got a statement from Dr. Gordon Harper- director of child adolescent services for DMH. The same guy she talked to back in 2007 following up the hearing at the State house– the committee for child abuse and neglect. (Boston Globe March 1, 2007).–A little background from her– the same reporter would have been very informative.

So, Dr Harper tells her he is disappointed that the dept. (DCF has not maintained gains and that they all knew that “DCF was amateurville” so far as medical expertise is concerned. And somehow she forgot that 6 years ago, after the death of a 4yo from an OD of Clonidine given by her parents, who were supposed to be monitored by DCF, Dr. Harper was appointed the interim director of DSS (now DCF)-it was his job to spend a million dollars to hire medical expertise for DCF!! She gave him a pass on that and the fact that given his position in DMH, he should have become involved in Justina’s case– if only because of the numerous complaints filed w/ DMH. He did not need an invitation to use his 40 years as a child psychiatrist to examine the patient and her medical record. So, Patty writes as though he is just an expert on how poorly DCF is run!

But, the most important information that I can’t help but think an investigative reporter would have discovered, is that Dr. Gordon Harper was worked with the current director of psychiatry, David Demaso when the psychiatric unit was established inside BCH– around 1989. Before that, Dr. Harper was heavily involved in the forerunner of Bader, the psychosomatic illness unit in the Judge Baker childrens Center. Very close ties/friends with all of the HMS child psychiatrists!

If Patty Wen doesn’t know the history of the psychiatric unit at BCH, she is not much of an investigative reporter. If she does know and allows this high ranking doctor who is quite powerful in our “child protection agencies and has the power to allow his good friends on Bader 5 to break the law and abuse children and families; if Wen knows and is choosing to keep silent and allow the public to believe that shabby, poorly funded DCF is the problem– I have an unprintable term that describes her!

In her 2007 article she quoted Dr. David Demaso, one of several “prominent child psychiatrists” gathered at the State house.Demaso was giving testimony at that hearing, or rather using the tragedy of the death of a child to make pleas for more ‘support’ of psychiatrists — more funding $$– and actually said that psychiatrists needed this support to get to the root of the complex problems that children have–and he “urged greater collaboration among specialists”!

But somehow Patty Wen forgot all about the words and deeds of these two : Gordon Harper and David Demaso– and so we get mamby pamby news–i.e., recall Demaso telling Neil Swidey “That’s DCF” when asked why the Pelletiers were being forced to accept a diagnosis that Demaso actually called, “vague”??

I have a suggestion for how you might approach the Globe. Two years ago when Patricia Wen wrote the series on the “Other Welfare” I wrote her at her Globe e-mail address ([email protected]). I praised part of her series but then sharply criticized her article for leaving out the role of the pharmaceutical corporations and of Biological Psychiatry in creating the conditions for poor people to use disability benefits as a substitute for welfare. I said this would result in more attacks on the poor for trying to find creative ways to survive and shift focus away from the real criminals at the top of this pyramid.

She was so upset that I insinuated that this series might lead to more attacks on the poor that she sent me her cell phone number and insisted that we talk on the phone. We had a long interesting exchange on the whole issue and she accepted part of my position.

I do believe her series was overall positive in exposing aspects of the Pelletier case; let’s start there. So if you approach her from the perspective that she is leaving out some vital information that may end up misinforming the readership and harming the family she may be very interested in talking with you directly. Give it a try; your inside information needs to be more broadly disseminated. Keep up the struggle.

It is not a left-right issue. Most of our congress is sold out to the moneyed interests. It’s about corporatists vs. those who believe that human beings are more important than dollars. There are plenty on both sides of the aisle who believe anything that will get them a campaign contribution, and the pharmaceutical companies are as ruthless as they can be in spreading their dollars around to all of the Repiblicrats who bow down to them, regardless of their “liberal” or “conservative” labels.

I agree about “right bashing,” but “left bashing” is just as unproductive. I’m more liberal than most who call themselves liberal (I actually BELIEVE in helping the poor and the downtrodden!) but I’ve been fighting this issue since the 90s, when everyone thought I was out of my mind for not supporting the “new science” of “brain disorders.”

I am interested if Justina has an attorney in all this, and if so, where that attorney’s voice is. In Portland, all kids in the child welfare system get their own attorneys, and their job is to advocate for what the CHILD wants. And I’d bet my mortgage that Justina wants to go home.

This is one of the worst cases I’ve ever seen, and I have worked as an advocate for kids in the child welfare system for 17 years. Have you considered starting a “change.org” petition on this one? I’ve seen it work on outrageous situations like this one. Just a thought…

Thanks for all your advocacy, and for giving us the real data. This case is a superb advertisement for why enforced treatment is SO dangerous and should never be allowed.

Hard to say on both counts. Some of these attorneys are awesome and some are just cashing a paycheck. Getting her a good one could really help. She could also benefit from a CASA volunteer or Guardian ad Litem, which is what I do. They are responsible for advocating for the best interests of the child, but are lay people and in the main are pretty skeptical about psychiatry.

As for petitions, some of them seem to be very effective and some are not. I think it not only puts pressure on the authorities, it also raises awareness of the issue among people who don’t know about it. It certainly can’t hurt, and might make a difference.

Justina has a *court appointed* attorney and a NEW ( Dec 20th)*court appointed* G.A.L. and the SECOND *Independent Investigator*

Going back to the description of the union of juvenile court, child welfare– created and orchestrated by HMS Child Psychiatrists–starting in the 1950’s is the best way I can share information regarding where Justina’s attorney’s voice is — and why there is an ice cube’s chance in hell that any of these NEW *court appointed* professionals will break rank with BCH psychiatrists.

So far there has been evidence of conflict of interest re: the first Independent Investigator who, had very strong ties to BCH–established beyond a doubt by the Pelletier’s attorney, Chester Tennyson. The Judge overruled his objection to that one. I don’t know the name of the new one, so cannot investigate him/her.

All along, Judge Joseph Johnston has been just letting the clock run out– so to speak. Approaching the decision to turn over permanent custody to DCF and inevitable foster care, even adoption for Justina. Knowing what the inside of this looked like since June, the only hope was igniting a *court of public opinion*. Enter Neil Swidey and the long silence– the most agonizing ordeal of this past year! The Globe ran his *half baked* story a month after Beau Berman fought hard to get his first 5 minute segment on CT Fox News. And there are many who believe the Globe is the reputable authority on this story. LOL !! But that can wait until Justina is free.

Justina’s situation is beyond horrifying for one almost entirely missed fact. She DOES have a medical condition that requires appropriate care, in addition to the Mito diagnosis for which she has had been deprived of the treatment that proved the most beneficial in terms of the quality of her life. She has a cecostomy tube that BCH says she did not need. She has endured the tampering and experimenting these *experts* have subjected her to, which translates into varying degrees of embarrassment and pain for the past 11 months. It’s one thing to be forced into a locked unit because your behavior or mental state is freaking someone out– and another to be deprived of medical care and support you need because *experts* say your physical condition is *all in your head*.

YES, this is an all time low for HMS chid psychiatry– a *time to take the gloves off* moment.

I actually do not believe there is anything extraordinary about an adult putting herself/himself in harms way to protect a child– in that, this is an entirely basic human response. I want to emphasize that I personally know at least 10 people who could have rescued Justina, or made it more difficult for BCH to hold on to her. All of them opted to protect themselves; jobs. career standing– not like anyone was asking them to take a REAL bullet.

I have, in the recent past, risked more for less. By that I mean there was no real threat of severe, permanent physical demise or death for the patient’s I advocated for–but I risked enough to have less to lose this time around. (that’s the bright side)

I am hoping for a strong display of humanism on January 10th. A mirror to hold up to the court system. DCF and most of all BCH. What do people who care about children and justice look like in action?

NOT like BCH administrators’ !

NOT like BCH department of psychiatry !

NOT like Judge Johnston !

NOT like the MA. DCF workers. case manager and commissioner!

NONE of THEIR faces are anywhere to be found on court hearing days!

The mere presence of people who CARE shows the difference– talking about a real case of psychiatric abuse in REAL time publicly is a nuance of caring we have not been able to demonstrate before now.

As the clock continues to wind down. I know that people are mobilizing in various ways to rescue Justina and that this really is a pivotal moment to seize victory for every psych rights movement in this country.

Whatever spiritual beliefs are held by the readers and participants on this page, I hope you will all say a prayer that Justina does not become a martyr for the cause; that she emerges from 11 months of abject confinement and isolation to find how much and how many people care about her!

If you are interested in the connection between the director of Psychiatry at BCH and the Director of child adolescent services at DMH, please read:

“Dying Young: A Crisis of Tragic Dimensions Unfolds Every Day At The Nation’s Largest Children’s Hospital ” by (Pulitzer Prize winner), Michael D’Antonio July 12, 1992, os Angeles Times.

It’s a long article, not unlike Neil Swidey/Patricia Wen recent manifesto in the Globe. You will first encounter Dr. David Demaso under the caps : “WHILE SOMETHING AS BASIC AS FOOD COULD HELP MICHAEL OUT OF THE.” and learn that there is”

Yes, that was 1992 — think about what these two guys were setting the stage for then!

read on until you get to:

“Harper takes a break to discuss trends in psychiatry. He agrees that more children are entering the psychiatric system, but he says that is due in part to a heightened awareness of children’s needs.”

and..

“A few hours earlier, Harper had appeared before the special education director at a local school to plead for special services for one of his patients. Harper says; ” The problem is, they don’t have the money, and they won’t provide services unless you force them to.”

Why should we allow history to repeat itself– in just 21 years!! Do you remember the wave that was set to break with the invention of “Bipolar diagnosis”?? This was the very beginning of the PHARMA cash cow at BCH !!

Now, what is it we need to become aware of in 20013? That 50% of children receiving high end medical services really have psychosomatic disorder??

I was hardly a Glen Beck fan– but he has this one pegged!Would be too bad if people confuse the message with the messenger! Such has been the case with HMS psychiatrists for the past60 years!

We need to be pro-active.
We need to get a federal law passed once-and-for-all:

Protection of Constitutional Rights

The Mental Health Freedom and Recovery Act will ensure constitutional rights are upheld for individuals who have been diagnosed with severe mental health disorders.
The act will uphold the spirit of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and ensure least restrictive, most therapeutic options are made available.
The act will create a universal psychiatric advance directive to be respected in each of the fifty states that allows a person to refuse any/all conventional psychiatric treatment in lieu of safer, more effective options; to include treatment for acute crisis and trauma.

System Transformation

The act will transform the current system from a ”mental illness management” model to one that offers hope and promotes optimal mental health and recovery… Read the rest:

A few months from now, it will be another situation; a few years from now, the same; a few decades… And we will be writing out letters and making our phone calls: “Pretty please… ” I’m tired of this crap.

I read here a lot and I have to say as a survivor of psychiatry I’m impressed by your posts. You have a wonderful knack of getting to the point that I really admire.

I read your bill (very well crafted by the way) and though I am not sure how far it would get, I think it’s worth pursuing.

The big reason being, if we could get a modicum of support behind it then we could (hopefully) garner media attention. Which would attract more people to the movement. Even with the media being hopelessly biased against us, if they simply retorted against a bill like this it would cue some of the public who have been harmed and don’t realize there IS a movement out there to come looking for us.

So if we pursued this with the understanding that it might fail, but with the goal of raising awareness among the general public, then I think we could prevent the burnout aspect that would likely arise if we kept the ideals unrealistic.

I agree with you entirely — especially, as I interpret this word, “succeeding,” to indicate success of various kinds.

IMHO, Duane’s bill is the work of a true visionary… who is actually countless years (maybe even eons) ahead of his time.

Duane’s bill is a work of genius. No kidding. (I say that quite sincerely…)

There is so much intelligent thought put in it…

Though, personally, I do feel certain, that: Even if I live to be a 100, I’ll never see a day that Duane’s bill shall be scheduled for a vote, on the floor of the U.S. House or Senate — let alone any day that it would be voted into law.

Simply, it contains far too much wisdom, too many intelligent provisions, to be considered viable…

The American public has long been conditioned to believe in the ‘good’ of its Therapeutic State; the ongoing existence of of a shadow ‘justice system’ — which is ruled by the whims of Psychiatry and by those who are sympathetic to Psychiatry — is a proper thing, in the minds of most Americans.

The vast majority believe that Psychiatry is protecting society against those ostensibly “mentally ill” and “mentally disordered” people who are supposedly “a danger to others” and/or who are “a danger to themselves.”

These supposedly ‘dangerous’ people require ‘treatment’ — mainly in the form of psycho-pharmaceuticals — according to the ‘mental health’ professionals (and, according to many family members, of such individuals).

A very large proportion of the populace (anywhere from a quarter to a third of all Americans) are said to be “mentally ill.”

If and when they may seem ‘dangerous,’ they must not be subjected the criminal justice system.

Hence, by this point in time, the U.S. Congress, as a whole, can hardly be expected to bother itself considering such a document, such as Duane’s… even in the confines of a small committee.

The U.S. Congress has far more serious business to attend; it’s busy with matters that, with good reason, it traditionally considers paramount; it is immersed in defending national security…

It has its full schedule of “Intelligence Committee” meetings, dedicated to considering the implications of the NSA tapping the phones of heads of State, who are allies, etc..

Duane’s bill is, meanwhile, just about protecting the liberties of common citizens, from the impositions of unwanted Psychiatry.

All kidding aside…

The U.S. Congress is made up mere politicians, who, in the main, are just not that bright — and never will be…

However, in my view, his bill should be promoted.

I will gladly do so, at the very least by sharing the link to his web page, with anyone who may be interested in psych-rights; but, really, I think it may be possible to interest one or two prominent Congress members, in it…

Should that happen, I’d see it as a success; if Duane (or anyone presenting his bill) could have a meeting with anyone in Congress, that would be an huge victory, in and of itself…

For, possibly, bits and pieces of his bill could eventually find themselves incorporated into bills which do find their way to the floor — and which could pass.

Those would be successes (no matter how ‘small’).

In my humble opinion, Duane’s bill is a living document, which (though it will never be passed, in full) does provide an excellent vehicle for psychiatric survivors and others who are deeply interested in promoting psych-rights and civil liberties, generally; it is a vehicle for studying and introducing real/healthy solutions…

IMHO, we should introduce it to any potentially sympathetic media figures; doing so can only help our cause — and cannot help but provide one and all a valuable introductory education to these issues…

Big changes are happening these days through State legislatures. It might be a good place to start with this kind of legislation. If I’m not mistaken, the prior movement to protect the civil rights of the “mentally ill” started with state statutes preventing the willy-nilly detention of anyone a psychiatrist declared insane. I think that’s the way we get this going. Congress is simply too much in the pockets of the pharmaceutical industry, and won’t bite the hand that feeds them.

I am glad to have read the exchange between Sinead and Richard. I think it is important, though (and I’m not saying that is what is happening here) not to fall into the habit of telling one another how terrible everything is. All of us know that already.

Our job, I think, is to convince the PUBLIC how bad everything in the system is, and we must focus on that. The media attention to this case is giving us that opportunity.

Hopefully, if we keep our eyes on the ball, we not only will win freedom for Justina, but make steps toward an enlightened public opinion that will keep things like this from happening in the future.

Right now, psychiatry’s vision of the future seems to be (1) a commitment standard of “need for treatment,” as in the Murphy bill, meaning anyone can be locked up and drugged just on their say-so, with no legal recourse, and (2) the power to take away parental rights at will, so children can be drugged and abused by the mental illness system, without their parents being able to protect them.

We have to show the public that everyone is threatened by this. The power psychiatrists are demanding is a threat to our democracy.

It seems to me “our job” ought to be to make sure the constitution is respected with these cases. To get a federal law passed to make sure it is. But hey, what do I know? I’m not an attorney.

Besides, it seems like a lot of people enjoy moaning and bitching, with no interest in really changing things. These cases, it seems provide another chance to bash the right, capitalism, religion, western civilization, whatever…

To clarify – IMO, we are wasting our time if we *only* put out these fires each time a new case arises.

We need to *also* get a law passed in a *proactive* fashion to *prevent* future cases like this. Otherwise, we will just exhaust ourselves, while being at the will of the elected crowd, media of the hour, etc.

“I’m out” was an expression of the feeling of having wasted so many hours these past years on these type of individual cases…. finding myself (like many others) asking “pretty-please” to elected officials to intervene.

It seems to me we could do a lot better, if we chose to, but I’ve yet to see any sort of commitment to get a bill through Congress.

When the gag order is lifted– and especially when Justina is home– free to tell her story, there will be a flood of information for the public to digest. Rallying people to a cause for action.

I am in contact with several media sources and am having dialogue with a variety of concerned people who have never considered that Parens Patriae powers are at the root of both parental rights and the rights of the “so-called, mentally ill” being usurped by the “state”.. The legal power to take children from their parents and to “force psychiatric treatment” was initiated in Boston, where the arrogance to assume to know what is best for us all was spawned– at Harvard. Education regarding how ‘this could happen’ is key to attacking the injustice it has wreaked for over 100 years.

Regarding ‘this case’, the reason you even heard about it is the direct result of a family who refused to yield to the Divine Law attitude of BCH psychiatrists. You should try to imagine the strength if will and fortitude required to initiate this battle, much less fight it DAILY for almost a year. I am only 6 months into it, but over the course of this time, I have educated many state officials about aspects of ‘our cause’. FBI agents and lawyers in Martha Coakley’s office did not know the extent of laws pertaining to psychiatric commitment and the protection of human rights that is supposed to happen even on a locked psych unit — those human rights are not just the idealism of DMH, but based on law! The ground work for everything I have read about the ‘movement’ for the past two years is finally happening here in Boston== the epicenter of the scourge all of us have dealt with in many ways.

I have never viewed Justina or her family as “pawns for the cause”. At the beginning I believed there was hope for oversight and intervention– all along the way there has been an ugly revelation of ignorance and corruption. No one has been hurt as badly as Justina in this case– She is my cause– maybe because she is more real to me than you, Duane, can imagine. I absolutely feel that unless she is free, neither am I–

No matter how noble or righteous the goal, in our society, nothing much can be ignited until it becomes personal– We are not living amongst altruists!

I would ask you to consider that the agenda you have visualized is not likely– or even possible unless the reasons for it are felt on a large scale. I am still doing my part to make sure there is fertile soil for real change to grow and mature into what you and many others have talked about here.

I am a regular reader of MIA– just have not had time to engage on forums since about this time last year!

As you know there are laws in existence since the end of the Civil War that are a throw back to Roman times; that children born in this country owe their allegiance to our country, and that the State is our actual parent. these laws permitted compulsory education, for instance and the horrid closed adoptions that happened here in the late 1800’s. I think fhat if we do not grapple with laws that were hatched out and passed without public debate right here in Boston, and realize that however ‘wrong’ all of these cases are, they have some grounding in law.

The problem we all comment on has to do with the power granted to psychiatry to determine who is ‘incapacitated’ and therefore a ‘ward of the State’.

Right now, psychiatry at BCH has accused parents of “medical child abuse”. Yet, as you know, the Child Protection Team at BCH did not formally charge Linda and Lou Pelletier with this ‘crime’. No. Instead they asserted their legal right to petition for the State to become Justina’s guardian. So, instead of a case brought before a federal Judge, where actual evidence would be required to even indict the Pelletier’s, we see the case brought
before a Juvenille Court Judge, who defers to the ‘Medical Expertise” of BCH, and turns Justina over to MA DCF, while discounting all evidence brought forth by here board certified, licensed medical doctors who have treated her for 2 years!

The crux of the matter is that psychiatrists really have no medical expertise. The highest ranking psychiatrist at BCH, Dr. David Demas has spoken publicly and published extensively on the necessity for collaboration with medical specialists in order to treat psychiatric illness in physically ill children. The name and reputation of BCH is being used to promote this concept of “medical child abuse”,for cases where a child is diagnosed with a new and somewhat controversial diagnois: Lyme, PANDAS, Mito.
which, as I have pointed out, would never stand up in a
criminal court.

This is a pivotal moment to catch psychiatry in the act of creating a new catregory for the new market they need. The key pieces are the new subspecialty of psychiatry:”Psychosomatic Medicine” and the new catchy term for snaring medical patients into psychiatry: “medical child abuse”. Please bear in mind that the roll out for new disorders has always looked like
this– the one you speak of often, Biederman’s crime, was about 21 years ago– should still be fesh in the mi9nds of all psych clinicians nearing or over 60!

Also, remember that Jim Gottstein made his mark by challenging a committment hearing as a real legal case! When evidence is needed to support a decision of the court, all bets are off for the BS this current group of psychiatrist’s at BCH are trying to sell.

The court of public opinion and a gutsy lawyer who would charge BCH psychiatrists with kidnapping and medical neglect, would do the trick. It would also begin the public debate that may well have kept the Parens Patriae powers from ever becoming laws!

Not trying to talk about how bad things are, just trying to share my perspective on the root of the problem– what we are facing and where I see potential for advancement.

Fox News Channels (THE Fox News Channel, rather than the local affiliates) seem to have started coverage of the case in earnest.

Here is a clip from “Happening Now” which is their morning news show http://video.foxnews.com/v/2965033619001/122313justina1137/ . This morning, ironically while I was reading this page, I saw a different coverage (haven’t seen it online yet) in which their psychiatrist in residence, Keith Ablow, harshly criticized Boston Children’s Hospital for using the mental health laws of Massachusetts to resolve the dispute (Keith is based in Boston). They also said that they have gotten in touch with Boston Children’s for an explanation and that they will continue to monitor the case.

I am an avid watcher of Fox News Channel. The way I have seen situations like this in the past, in which the top editors clearly feel that something wrong is happening in some particular situation, is that they first let the target of their reporting know that they are watching by talking about it during their normal news (ie not opinion based) coverage. If the situation doesn’t fix itself, they usually get their top dogs (the ones that get the millions of views in the evening) involved until something happens. They have been successful in the past correcting obvious wrongs. Here is Bill O’Reilly ambushing the Montana Judge that earlier in the year gave a light sentence to a rapist under the excuse that the victim looked “older for her age” http://video.foxnews.com/v/2679349485001/watters-world-bad-judge-edition/ . I would expect something similar if Justina is not returned to her parents after the January 10th hearing.

What if Justina Pelletier doesn’t have mitochondrial disease? What if the treatment she was receiving, was really hurting her? From the mitoaction.org website:

– There is no reliable and consistent means of diagnosis.

– Diagnosis can be made by one of the few physicians that specializes in mitochondrial disease.

and from the Boston Globe article: ‘Korson recognized that this approach made him a “lumper,” meaning he was more willing to lump patterns of symptoms together to get to a diagnosis, even if the patient did not have the classical markers associated with the illness.’

From the news I read it’s impossible to know if she has mitochondrial disease or if there was indeed something going on that could be described as “medical child abuse”.

Justina has “neuropathy of the bowel” per a 7 hour motility study done at Tufts–

She had a cecostomy – a tube inserted for irrigation of her colon that needs to be flushed for her to have bowel movements – April 2012– there is a little button for access on her abdomen. She began to gain weight after the surgery– and was in great shape just before she got the flu— as you can see in her skating video.

This was a red flag for the psychologist who saw her in the ED. Simona Bujoreanu has published her theory that 50% of ‘high end’ medical service using pediatric patients actually have somatoform/psychosomatic illness. So, without parent’s consent, or consult with her surgeon, BCH stopped flushng her tube — gave her “bowel stimulants”– caused constipation and bloating/pain == all the while ‘encouraging’ Justina by telling her she did not need that awful tube”– and some questionable :behavior therapy and psycho therapy’– outrageous!

I think BCH psychiatry is admitting now that she does need ‘the tube’ !

I couldn’t finish the talk because it made me sick to my stomach just watching until minute 17.

It reminds me of something that I heard once to Paula Caplan in one of her talks. She said that in 20+ years hearing horror stories about psychiatric power out of control, she is still surprised about how creative psychiatrists are to find ways to destroy people’s lives.

Now they have found a new way to impose psychiatry on children whose parents are unwilling to yield to their desires: medical child abuse.

It fits very well the overall DSM theme: if you eat too much, you have a disease, if you eat too little you have a disease, if you have too much sex you have a disease, if you have too little sex you have a disease. Now if you take your child to the doctor too much, you are a perpetrator of medical child abuse, if you take your child to the doctor too little, you are also a perpetrator of medical child abuse too! You need to take your child to the doctor only “in the right amount”. And of course, the doctor knows nothing about what is “too much” or “too little”, he/she is just an innocent enabler of an abusing parent.

Boy, I understand that psychiatrists need something to replace the children they will lose now that Allen Frances and similar have denounced false ADHD and bipolar epidemics, but this new “Munchausen syndrome by proxy” crosses a line that even in my wildest dreams I never thought it would be possible for the most evil of psychiatrists to cross, and yet that is where there market for the upcoming years seems to be!

What really, really offended me about Simona was how it was OKAY for HER to be concerned about Justina’s symptoms but NOT OKAY for her own mother to be concerned:

“Bujoreanu noted that Justina appeared to be more impaired when her mother was around. During an examination that Monday afternoon, when Justina stuttered and struggled to articulate simple words such as cracker, Bujoreanu wrote, “mother was reacting at the bedside, making statements such as ‘See, what is that?’ or ‘Why is this happening?’””

Would Simona ever have noticed it if Linda didn’t point it out to her?

What if Linda never noticed it, would she be charged with neglect?

But she DID notice it and ASKED what it was. In asking, she got criminalized in response.

That was but one of Simona’s famous drive by psych consults. Remember these observations occurred during the first three days of Justina;s admission– total time anywhere near Justina was about 20 minutes. ANYTHING she caught a glimpse of would have fit neatly into Dr. Alice Newton’s profile of the parent guilty of *medical child abuse*.

Well, one thing is for sure; Justina is not ‘mentally ill” and doesn’t nned to be held against her will and the will of her parents in a psychiatric ward that functions under the guise of a “hospital!”

Psychiatrists are not doctors, plain and simple. Their so-called specialty of medicine should be shut down. They do not follow the first law of medicine which we all know is “First Do No Harm.” Their only so-called “treatment” are the toxic drugs that induce illness. They have absolutely no business being involved in Justina’s case.

When are Americans going to wake up and realize that the biggest hoax in our entire history has been perpetrated on our society by the unholy marriage and alliance of psychiatry and the drug companies? How many more people are going to be dragged kicking and screaming into psychiatry’s net to be drugged so that Big Pharma can continue to rake in the billions of dollars in profit that they’re accustomed to at this point in time? When are we going to take the power away from psychiatrists so that they can’t wreck more peoples’ lives. We are all sheep being led to the slaughter!

I also hope that elderly people and those who are severely disabled are able to continue to use their Medicare (now that it’s going to be gutted). I suppose I’m a bleeding heart conservative, with libertarian tendencies.

I too will fight psychiatry alongside any person, regardless of the rest of their politics. As things stand, both parties are getting this all wrong – for different reasons, but wrong nonetheless.

We’ll have to agree to disagree :D. I hope Obamacare is an utter failure. It is not that much the idea of insuring the uninsured (position I am sympathetic to through other means) but as the Justina case shows, the notion of having government bureaucrats putting themselves, by way of regulation, between you and your doctor is appalling.

Justina has been caught in the “intellectual” dispute between a BCH psychiatrist defending her own pet diagnosis and a Tufts doctor defending mitochondrial disease. In the meanwhile, government gets in between asserting its right to separate a child from her parents while the dispute is being sorted out. Justina has spent 10 months in a psychiatric ward because of government!

Any law, such as Obamacare, that gives government bureaucrats more power to affect people’s lives in the name of healthcare has to be resisted which is why I dislike Obamacare with a passion. Only slightly less than the Tim Murphy bill!!

WRONG! Justina’s case is an example of collusion– the Parens Patriae powers gave Juvenile Court Judges the role of “Justina’s Daddy”, to decide with the powers of “judicial discretion” what s in her best interest.

The collusion is just a playing out of the ‘family’ dynamics of HMS psychiatry, DCF and Juvenile Court”. Been going on strongly here since the 1950’s when HMS child psychiatry moved the Judge Baker Center across from Children’s Hospital– then INTO Children’s Hospital in the Fall of 1993!

Tax payer money has provided most of the funding for their child/family abuse! Forcing down costs, profits and any further incentives for dirty operations like this is a major plus for us all.

Jim Gottstein is trying to make headway with challenging the legitimacy of psych treatment ==so that medicaid will not reimburse for this outrageous abuse of kids– but this is very tricky terrain.

Why did the GOP shut down the government over Obamacare? Because we ‘the people’ were getting shafted? or because of the financial loss to ‘ insurance companies’ the second wealthiest industry in our country? Imbedded in this shift in health care is a possibility of returning sanity to health care in America–

However, it has absolutely no bearing on Justina Pelletier’s case, as the benefactors of this scam have deep pockets, thanks to the wealthiest industry in the world, pharmaceutical co.s!!

Obamacare is the answer to the failure to secure transparency from health care Cartels– a campaign promise Obama made in 2008. And a failure to limit their control over our government.

Whew! Some people cannot tell when the government is actually trying to help.. 🙁

As I said, we’ll have to agree to disagree. At the root of the Justina case I see nothing but government bureaucrats working to justify their own existence. I recommend everybody to watch in its entirety the youtube video that was provided earlier about the findings of the CCHR investigator: http://youtu.be/EEhhdqo9gqw . You will be extremely surprised, or maybe not, that the structure of the Medicaid program in Massachusetts for instance provides incentives for DCF to kidnap first, then ask whatever legitimate questions they might have later. Why? Because once the custody of one of these children is in the hands of DCF, the federal government pays 100% of the expenditures of the medical care through medicaid while if the custody remained in the hands of the parents, the state would have to pay a share of the cost. This also explains why Justina is in a psych ward: it is considered “medical care” and it is 100% paid by the federal government. The state only has to pay the salaries of the DCF bureaucrats. That will continue to be the case if the keep custody until Justina is 18.

Bureaucracies have only one objective: self preservation. This applies both to private and government bureaucracies, except that at least private bureaucracies can go out of business. A government bureaucracy can only grow. It will grow at any cost, even at the cost of kidnapping children through nonsensical psychiatric diagnoses.

Obamacare increases the number of bureaucrats that have a say in healthcare decisions for many Americans. I hardly see how that’s a good thing. And I am not getting in the IRS component of the law to enforce the individual mandate which onto itself is problematic.

Same thing here. When it comes to confronting psychiatric coercion, I only have one litmus test question : do you think that all forms of psychiatric coercion are as evil as I do? If the answer is positive, I couldn’t care less about the remaining political positions of that person! Psychiatric coercion is evil and this case is probably the quintessential example of how things can be really be made horrific by self appointed mind guardians who invent diseases out of thin air.

I think that you are discounting the legal basis for the ‘kidnapping” by DCF when psychiatry is involved. This legal “kidnapping” was,by design, a means for controlling potentially problematic individuals by an elite group of super intellectuals who were invested in securing their status, rank and power in our society. If you read the synopsis of the historical context in the U.S. when Parens Patriae powers were eased into our judicial system, you will find there was a climate of dis-ease amongst those who held power. In their noble quest to maintain order and create what was referred to as, “the perfect” hive, in the midst of an influx of different cultures via mass immigration.

There was and is a method behind this madness ! I think it is best described by John Taylor Gatto, a former teacher – for 30 years- in the NYC school system. The two prongs of these powers of State over our destiny are, 1) compulsory education – designed to indoctrinate and teach submission to authority, and 2) psychiatry– ever evolving for the purpose of identifying defective (to the State) individuals and rendering them harmless to society. If you fail to appreciate the reasoning and the perceived purpose for maintaing this power by those who make, enforce and interpret law, you are missing a crucial point. The so-called bureaucrats perceive themselves to be charged with a mission to maintain order and have consistently deferred to the agencies and systems in place since mid 20th century!–( “The Underground History of American Education”, John Taylor Gatto, 2001). Under the tutelage of psychiatry to a larger degree than many can believe. (“Mad in America”, Robert Whitake, 2002″ ; Reclaiming Our Children…” Peter Breggin, 2000)

If that weren’t bad enough, the business of health care– free enterprise, capitalist version, has become a predator, preying on the ‘flock of sheep’ we have become, exploiting us all for obscene profits! ( “Pharmageddon” David Healy, 2012; “White Coat, Black Hat”, Carl Elliott )

The more well educated we, the people become, and the less dependent on the bureaucrats we are, the better able we will become to challenge our destiny and forge communities of capable people. IMO.

Yes, Justina’s case is a head’s up to the new frontier psychiatry is trying to claim — and yes there is $$ to be had from federal and state taxpayers, but there is also an incentive– saving $$ for insurance companies who would prefer NOT to to pay claims for high-end medical service users, such as these young people who have ‘new’ illnesses that are difficult to diagnose and difficult to treat.

If you are going to wage a war of words with the bureaucrats, the educated elite and ALL who enact and interpret law, I think the best place to start is identifying who these people are and seek to understand why they keep doing what they have always done. Then, ponder what their greatest fear is– or what actually threatens them.

From the inception of Parens Patriae the single most daunting threat was a well educated, capable populace– one not easily ensnared by industrialists; not willing to give up personal freedom for promise of financial gain or false security; people like our first great leaders who whose education was more self directed , less prescribed.

I believe there is a strong contingency of well educated, courageous individuals,who will demonstrate the true purpose of education by preventing this next scourge from psychiatry a chance to grow– and seizing the moment to educate ‘the people’; gain support for a new chapter of history based on the ideals we believe are the foundation of freedom in a democratic society.

Our revolution is about mind, intellect, humanism– fought with the pen and dialogue, not coercion and force. Yeah, a human revolution- en masse that exemplifies the best of our innate human potential.

By the way, Boston Children’s Hospital is furious over Obamacare– talk of a lawsuit even– think about WHO is most against this new health care legislation before you assume it is a horrible plight for ‘the people’.

Sinead, as a lawyer, I am very interested in what you said about the “parens patriae” doctrine being developed in Boston only about a century ago. I think you are quite right about how basic this idea is in enabling abuse against us and vulnerable children and anyone. Could you direct me to some article or link or case that discusses this? I see I need to educate myself more about this issue. Thanks for bringing this up.

I really don’t know what references would be most suited to a lawyer’s needs for education, but I will share my intro to this concept from a book written by John Taylor Gatto (2001) -“The Underground History of American Education.” The following passages are from the special ‘edited by the author’ edition- pp 120-23.

The Parens Patriae Powers

“The 1852 compulsory schooling legislation of Massachusetts represents a fundamental change in jurisprudence of parental authority, as had the adoption act passed by nearly identically constituted legislature just four years prior, the first formal adoption legislation anywhere on Earth since the days of the Roman Empire. Acts so radical could not have passed silently into practice unless fundamental changes in the status of husbands and wives, parents and children, had not already gravely damaged the prestige of the family unit.

These are clear signs as far back as 1796 that elements in the new American state intended to interpose themselves in corners of the family where no European state had ever gone before. In that year, the Connecticut Superior Court, representing the purest Puritan lineage of original New England, introduced “judicial discretion” into the common law of child custody and a new conception of youthful welfare hardly seen before outside the pages of philosophy books–the notion that each child had an individual destiny, a private “welfare” independently of what happened to the rest of the family.

A concept called “psychological parenthood” began to take shape, a radical notion without legal precedent which would be used down the road to support drastic forcible intervention into family life. It became one of the basic justifications offered during the period of mass immigration for compulsion law intended to put children under the thrall of so-called scientific parenting in schools.

Judicial discretion in custody cases was the first salvo in a barrage of poorly understood court rulings in which American courts *made* law rather than interpret it. These rulings were formalized later by elected legislatures. Rubber-stamping the *fait accompli*, they marked a restructuring of the framework of the family ordered by a judicial body without any public debate or consent. No precedent for such aggressive court action existed in English law, only in the dreams and speculations of utopian writers and philosophers.

The 1840 case *Mercein v. People* produced a stunning opinion by Justice Paige– a strain of radical strong- state faith straight out of Hegel:

The moment a child is born it owes allegiance to the government of the country of its birth, and is entitled to the protection of the government.

As opinion unrolled, Paige further explained “with the coming of civil society the father’s sovereign power passed to the chief or government of the nation.” A part of this power was then transferred back to both parents * for the convenience of the state*. But their guardianship was limited to legal duty maintenance and education, while absolute sovereignty remained with the State.

Not since John Cotton, teacher of the Boston church in the early Puritan period, had such a position been publicly asserted. Cotton, in renouncing Roger Williams , insisted on the absolute authority of magistrates in civil *and* religious affairs, the quintessential Anglican position. In later life he even came to uphold the power of judges over conscience and was willing to grant powers of life and death to authorities to bring about conformity. Thus did the Puritan rebellion rot from within.

A few years later after the Paige ruling, American courts received a second radical authorization to intervene in family matters. *the best interest of the child* test. In 1847, Judge Oakley of New York City Superior Court staked a claim that such power “is not unregulated or arbitrary” but is “governed, as far as the case will admit, by fixed rules and principles.” When such fixed rules and principles were not found, it caused no problem either, for it was only another matter subject to court discretion.

In the 54- year period separating Massachusetts’ compulsion school law/adoption law and the founding of Children’s Court at the beginning of the twentieth century in Chicago, (first Juvenile Court established in Boston, 1906) the meaning of these decisions became increasingly clear. With opposition from the family-centered societies of tidewater and hill-country in the South diminished by the civil war, the American state assumed the *parens patriae* powers of old-time absolute kings, the notion of the political state as the primary father. And there were signs it intended to use those powers to synthesize the type of scientific family it wanted, for the society it wanted. To usher the future it wanted.

The crucial years for the hardening of our national arteries were those between 1845 and 1920, the immigration years. (Judge Baker Guidance Center (Boston) founded 1917). Something subtler than Anglo-Saxon revulsion against Celt, Latin. and Slav was at work in that period. A utopian ideal of society as an orderly social hive had been transmitting itself continuously through small elite bodies of men since the time of classical Egypt. New England had been the New World proving ground of this idea. Now New England was to take advantage of the chaotic period of heavy immigration and the opportunity of mass regimentation afforded by the Civil War to established this form of total State.”

Side bar: Massachusetts : ” A state report noted the *frequency* with which parents coming to retrieve their own children from reform school were met by the news their children had been given away to others, through the state’s *parens patriae* power. “We have felt it to be our duty *generally* to decline giving them up to their parents and have placed as many as we could with farmers and mechanics,” reads a portion of Public Document 20 for the state of MA, written in 1864. To recreate the feelings of parents on hearing this news is beyond my power.”(J.T. Gatto)

I personally have gained a deeper understanding of the slick means psychiatry has employed to always site the cause of a ‘mental/emotional/behavioral problem’ as something within their power to diagnose, drug or lock away, from this history book written by “New York State and NYC Teacher of the Year”, Gatto.

As early as 1917, with the founding of the Judge Baker Center, there was a “prevalent belief that delinquency was not caused by external condition— thus letting industrialists and slumlords off the hook– but by deficient homes.” (Gatto p.123)

The first Juvenile Court Judge sent kids to *his* center where there was an opportunity to do *proper research* into the causes for delinquency. And where the means for conducting the research was controlled by — him– and the blaming of parents was the norm; the convenience with which HMS child psychiatrists came in around 1950 to analyze, treat and eventually medicate detainees at their own private discretion — and to publish whatever results they agreed were further *their cause*, was all due to the *power* a Juvenile Court Judge had to invite them in.

When drugs were advertised as magic bullets, it was convenient for these psychiatrists to let parents off the hook as the cause of their child’s *disorder*– but still have a means to give the *proper* treatment when the parents opposed it— via the Child Welfare agency/State custodian– or a court order. Same M.O. with very little variation for nearly 100 years– 5 generations– and here we are!

Considering “psycho history”, anyone can easily see what constitutes horrific and monstrous child abuse. I can attest that what I’ve read is NOT all “ancient History”. Much and plenty does still exist in the world today.

“the system” presents itself as some sort of great savior but too often THEY are also predators and abusers. We ALL know the horror stories. I “diagnose” the system as having their own insanity (aka “corruption”). Boys Town, a prime example, is a known (but denied) circuit of sexual predators.

It is not possible for an entity to “intake” and consume so much information about the evils in Humanity and NOT become sickened by it.

The statistics on childhood sexual abuse are:

1 in 5 girls
1 in 20 boys

(I do not know the accuracy of those statistics)

The well-known statistics of the “traditional” family are:

50% of heterosexual marriages end in divorce

Is the family dysfunctional, and disharmonious, not what “the system” thrives on? Reunification is their word but so is adoption.

It is known that there is an agenda to destroy the natural family (and religion) in order to cultivate and create immorality as the norm.

Considering the prominence of atheism, and popular hatred of religion, I would say the agenda is well established. How about that Miley Circus, what a transformation in her! She has *millions* of followers, of all ages. She made a statement to “teach kids that sex is magical and cool!”.

GOD does not like idolatry.

This is when I stand with Iran in calling United States “The Great Satan America”.

Just as I do NOT agree with American citizens in saying “wipe them off the face of the Earth”, I also DO NOT agree with Iranians saying the same about the United States. That is what constitutes “extremism” but LET IT BE KNOWN: Americans have ALSO said the same hostile hatred and intolerance against others in other parts of the world. I heard it myself, with my own two ears, for years. I did NOT appreciate it of Americans and I DO NOT appreciate it of Iranians.

While I do NOT agree with everything Iran communicates, I DO agree with them in saying that America is a “terrorist state” that “sets fire to everything, everywhere”.

What is being done in Justina and her family’s lives, and in the lives of others IS a horror, AND a terror, and has roused the anger of the people!

Let’s put Justina and Miley side by side and ask which is more valued and “important” in American life.

—

I love GOD Most High. I LOATHE satan. I’m a Living Witness of satan in its genuine physical form. satan is no “delusion” or creation of Human Beings. Neither is GOD Most High.

GOV IS NOT GOD Most High!

I am the only one I know who has accurately and correctly identified psychiatry as Earth’s antichrist.

The antichrist is a GOD LIKE entity that DENIES spirit and DENIES people the ultimate salvation! Magic pills, anyone?

They do not call the DSM “psychiatry’s bible” for no reason.

Psyche by definition means SPIRIT. There is confusion where psyche sometimes means “soul” but the correct meaning is spirit. Psyche and Spirit are synonymous terms.

They in their labs creating those formulas to prescribe the kids (and others) is *technology* and it actually CAN be seen as a form of infanticide. What is the name of the little girl who was PRESCRIBED TO DEATH?

I do not speak about their true intentions, or even their awareness or ignorance. Those things, I do not know. I only know the end result of their actions.

To conclude, a brief on insanity:

Ah, the Mother Land! I hear pedophilia is a serious problem over there in the UK (though, where is it not?). That is insanity. Insanity is a genuine disease and it is a sexual disease. satan is the so-called “god of sexual immorality”. Insanity manifests in a multitude of ways. Insanity can come by two ways: sexual indulgence and sexual deprivation. The consequences of insanity are insidious, where all life systems become taint and symptomatic.

William Reich and Nicola Tesla are two excellent examples of insanity (one by indulgence, the other by celibacy).

The root cause of cannibalism is none other than sexual immorality (which is insanity). Jeffery Dahmer is the proof and evidence of that. He was killed in prison.

I look forward to GOD’S intervention. We should all know by now that GOD brings to destruction that which rightfully must be destroyed. Which buildings were struck on 9/11? I, for one, will forever see that day as Divinity.

What do the people say?!

WAKE UP, AMERICA! But now Americans call it MURICA!

That’s my Aquarian “flood and dump” for the day. I could go on endlessly but I’ve already been working on this for nearly 24 hours. It’s exhausting.

Just imagine if I would have responded to you and said, “Oh, okay. I’m sorry. You’re right.”

Sinead established, above and beyond, that this matter is *quite* political, just as I have established that it is *quite* religious (for some of us).

By Scripture, we are told that GOD places people in certain positions of authority and we are told that GOD is always superior to GOV.

With so many Hearts and Minds invested in Justina Pelletier, I’d be surprised if the sky didn’t rumble on Friday if she is not released, with FULL custody returned to her Parents.

In the day of Christ was Pontius Pilatus (PP). For Justina (whose name means Just, Righteous) we have Joseph Johnston (JJ). Anyone who is awake will recognize a Divine Orchestration when they see it (as I do).

An inpatient psychiatric unit is the last place one could possibly expect a medical diagnosis. After all, any illness is assumed to be no more then symptomatic of an underlying mental illness. As Albert Maslow said, “If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.”

I can only imagine what the future holds for Justina. Those who were hospitalized and/or placed in residential treatment as adolescents often carry the trauma of the experience into adulthood and the burden of the Prophecy of Doom, “You have been too sick for too long to get any better.”

Adolescents who have been hospitalized tend to have futures which are a far cry from their peers. Ironic given that we are told the when a mental illness is identified and treated early in life the outcomes are overwhelmingly favorable. Sadly, this study found found otherwise. Adolescent Psychiatric Hospitalization and Mortality, Distress Levels, and Educational Attainment Follow-up After 11 and 20 Years, http://archpedi.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=485793

I counted. There are at least 4 people who have said the same thing. There is an awareness of stagnation, a lack of movement within the movement. You’re not the only one who is frustrated. You’re not the only one acknowledging it.

I think that they’re right on target. I too am very frustrated, especially due to the fact that I live in a state where we are 10 to 15 years behind everyone else in the country and the only “voice” for people with psychological and emotional distress is, you guessed it, NAMI!!!!!!! Psychiatrists here have no idea what I’m talking about when I point out study after study, like Harrow’s and the two WHO studies. They’ve never heard of Courtney Harding! Give me a break! It’s a freaking wasteland in the state where I live and psychiatrists are continuing to drug people with impunity, all “for their own good” of course! I’m so frustrated I could spit! If we wait too long to actually do something it’s going to be too late!

It’s more than OK, Duane. As mjk says, there are a lot of people who are frustrated by the lack of progress in our movement. We are up against some powerful forces working against our freedom, yet our “leaders,” almost all of them, don’t seem to have any strategy for fighting back. I feel just as frustrated as everyone else here. I hope the new revival of the Network Against Psychiatric Assault gets us back on track.

· The establishment of safe refuges where people in emotional distress can go to find real help.

· The abolition of involuntary commitment, as mandated by international human rights law. Until that goal is reached, at a minimum the present legal safeguards against involuntary commitment should be enforced.

The Network Against Psychiatric Assault supports all other movements of people fighting for liberation and justice. Using ethical and non-violent means, we will work toward a society where everyone is treated with the respect and nurturing that all human beings deserve.

That’s just a bit of what one finds, on that web page. To all MIA readers, I recommend visiting it.

Richard, I don’t know the details, as I obviously have not been involved in planning it. I know it is at the Edward Brooke Courthouse beginning at 8 am.I think you can find more details on the various Facebook pages about Justina. I am just coming to be supportive.

Sinead, thank you for posting the material about the evolution of the parens patriae doctrine in the United States. It was very interesting to me, something I will file in the back of my mind to be used in the future.

And in general, though I have said this already, yes, this is not a “left” or “right” issue. It is an issue of freedom, an issue that brings out what happens when one group (psychiatry) is given near-absolute power. What the Harvard child psychiatrists have done is a violation of the ideals of freedom our country was founded on. It is very important that we get the general public to see how they too are threatened by this. If we succeed in this, it will not just help Justina, but it will prevent this from happening to many other children, of which I was one.

Ted, thank you for writing about this. I’ve been following it through Mitochondrial disease Facebook groups and also horrified. In our family, we also were given the diagnosis of psychological, but luckily, we could go elsewhere and eventually got a diagnosis. We also started a treatment, similar to what Justina was on, and had great results. It’s a shame that they took that treatment away from her. I’ve thought about writing our story to the judges, to the CT attorney general, to the Child Protective Department, or someone, but I don’t think it would do any good.

Regarding Obamacare, it hasn’t improved anything for those of us stuck with “chronic” mental illness labeling. At least not in MA. I suspect it’s worse. Now, they offered us that have both Medicaid and Medicare combined (this itself is a nightmare) to sign up for this “managed care” called One Care. You get one card…I am so scared just about the card alone. I haven’t sampled the “care.” It also combines right into it Medicare Part D. So right on this ID card, that you present when you go to every doc, is the pharmacy BIN number. This number lets anyone know just how you got onto disability. This is against the ADA. I want to speak out against having to carry a disability ID card. Why? Anytime I am searched (not that I would be, but it could happen if I ended up in an ER) out comes that card and someone’s gonna know. Just for that reason, I refused One Care. I also phoned Medicaid and asked if our present Medicaid cards identify us as having a particular disability, and the guy said there was no identifier in the number itself. Did they intend to round us up more easily? Scary. I want off this “insurance,” too. I’m trying to erase my medical record. No more discrimination!

I refuse contact with and treatment by any psychiatrist, psychologist or other mental health practitioner as these practices, according to my philosophic and/or religious convictions, do not adequately or properly diagnose and such diagnoses can constitute a false accusation about my behavior and/or beliefs and practices, and are stigmatizing and therefore a threat to one’s reputation and physical and mental well-being.

I maintain my right not to have any psychiatric evaluation or diagnosis based upon the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) as such diagnoses are unreliable. According to Allen Frances, who was chairman of the fourth edition of DSM, “There are no objective tests in psychiatry—no X-ray, laboratory, or exam finding that says definitely that someone does or does not have a mental disorder.” (“Psychiatric Fads and Overdiagnosis,” Psychology Today, 2 June 2010.) Additionally, the DSM system is not scientific. It’s own editors state that “there is no assumption that each category of mental disorder is a completely discrete entity with absolute boundaries dividing it from other mental disorders or from no mental disorder.” (DSM-IV, pg. xxii)
Such codes and descriptions should not be entered into my medical records as this unreliable and unscientific information will remain in my records and may wrongly influence any future medical treatment I might receive.

It is quite interesting that both Connecticut and Massachusetts are part of the equation in Chelsea Cruz’s situation. Even more interesting that the information is hosted on Connecticut’s own GOV website. It feels like they WANT people to be aware. Silent calls for help, maybe?

I agree with you, it is extremely interesting that all this information is posted on an official state website.

I hope you or I can figure out what happened after Chelsey died. But if nothing else. I am going to write an article on MIA quoting the girl’s plea to the judge, which obviously was ignored. It is one of the most moving letters I have ever read, and it shows how inhuman the system of “child welfare” is. I was one of its victims also, and I think I need to dedicate myself in the time I have left to do everything I can to reform it.

What Judge Johnston has done is entirely within his power (Parens Patriae); he is literally Justina’s “Daddy”. He has “judicial discretionary” powers to decide whatever he thinks is in her best interest and will no doubt decide to award permanent custody to DCF this friday, Jan 10th. ALL legal!

The Court of Public opinion is the only real hope here– and it is important to educate the public regarding both the history behind this and the meaning it holds for all of us–

No matter what laws are passed to protect rights of people in the mental health system, the bottom line: the State is our parent; the State does consistently defer to psychiatry , is the ace of spades. Unless that is changed, other new laws are just window dressing.

“But this is a moment when we have the opportunity of showing that the unchecked power of psychiatry puts everyone at risk.”

“Children and their parents abused by psychiatry is an issue that most people resonate to, and we must use this opportunity to educate the public. It’s a rare chance to get out of our little bubble, where we mainly preach to the choir.”

Thank you for posting this well written call to demonstrate. I will be there this friday.

If anyone is coming into Boston via JetBlue, I have just heard that JetBlue is pulling out of Boston, as of today, Monday the 6th, canceling all flights beginning 1pm and by 5pm today Monday, all are ended. I have no clue why or what the deal is. I’m only posting this for those who are coming to the protest and maybe you will see it here. Please verify with the airline if you have tix. This was an announcement by JetBlue that I saw in our local online paper, posted just now and arrived in my e-mail as “breaking news.” I am local to Boston. I hope if you are coming in you were flying a different airline so you are not inconvenienced. Julie

I see no explanation. Only that all flights are ending and they are pulling out of Boston. Nothing about this being due to weather. The bad weather happened days ago and all is clear now. Glad you are coming United. I’m trying to find out why this has happened, and meanwhile looking forward to those posters who are coming to the protest.

Over the past few days, I have spoken to a number of young patients who have been abused in medical settings here in the Boston area, one at Children’s Hospital Bader 5. These were all weak and starved young people who were treated with unbelievable cruelty. The horror stories keep coming, and folks are telling me many ED patients end up so badly bullied that they are terrified to speak up. Many end up giving up on ever getting well or seeking medical help again. I am so glad I DO speak up because what is happening is that young people know someone believes them who has been through it. I have enough people now to start an action group locally for folks in eating disorders, to do whatever we can to stop the abuse.

Ted and the folks on here who are speaking up, going to the protest, and insisting on change and working to make it happen, you folks are truly an inspiration. So many young kids are so scared right now, just like I’ve been. They need our help.

It’s taken me awhile to comment because my mind has just been blown since learning of all of this. Somebody ought to write about the greater aspect of thus, which is that these psychiatrists are throwing stones from the biggest and most fragile of glass houses.

For years I had always thought that psychiatrists were of the opinion that unproven diagnoses and harmful treatments of dubious scientific support for children was not abusive or in any way wrong, because of course that’s what THEY do on a regular daily basis.

And yet, by their very own logic/argument for taking Justina away, coupled with the science of their OWN field, a case can be made that they are pervasive abusers of children… I’m just absolutely baffled… that case can now be made against them by using THEIR OWN logic and arguments as to what constitutes medical child abuse.

And then there’s the mind blowing irony of this. In the USA children are taken away from their parents all the time because the child is being “abused by medical neglect” when parents refuse to drug their kids (was my such case as a child) and then THOSE SAME PEOPLE turn around and take children away because the parents are having the child treated for illness that they believe are of little scientific support… something that they themselves consider to be child abuse… something that THEY THEMSELVES ARE DOING TO CHILDREN EVERY DAY!

JeffreyC, I wish Bob would write something about this also. Of course, I realize he is extremely busy and has already done so much.

But the ramifications of the Justina Pelletier case and similar type ones are chilling. The news is hopeful for Justina as according to her facebook page, she has been transferred to Tufts and hopefully will be given custody back to her parents in February.

This man named David Silver came to us at the protest. I’ve found his You-Tube. I was in tears hearing what happened to his family and to his son. What he told us was heart-wrenching and I believe every word of it without a doubt. It’s my hope that people who have been abused in hospitals never quit trying to make their story known, instead of giving in to pressure to “forgive and forget.” They are hoping we drop the subject, give up and stop talking. I have been abused in hospitals, too, as recently as this past August, and yes, they are ruthless and will stop and nothing.

Working ‘behind the scenes’ on Jan 10th– ramping up the *political* pressure has only barely eased the lock off of the door that has kept the horrific realities of the extent to which psychiatry has become totally out of control. But a clear start has been achieved—

Imagine- finally having direct contact with the tax- payer- salaried executives in the MA State House, and by way of introduction they say :”I really have not been involved in this case.” “I don’t have much in the way of first hand information”. “I ‘m not sure what it is you want me to do.”

Grateful for the contact, but appreciate the daunting challenge of bringing these * hard to find* individuals up to speed. The challenge, for me is all about the *talking points*. Given that there will be strict time limitations on every encounter, honing in to the heart of the matter is crucial. If not for the demonstrations at the court house (this is the only one I have missed), there would be no reason to expect anyone with power and influence in the Governors office, the Attorney Generals office and the epicenter of our lament: MA Department of Children and Families, to give me the time of day. I regret missing this chance to meet all of you who powered up the court of public opinion on January 10th, and reassured the Pelletiers that they have an extended family of support. Without you, I could not have made any forward progress!

For the next 6 days, I will be working on a letter of testimony for the public hearing on January 23rd. I am also creating educational pamphlets for distribution on that day. Per Kevin Hall of CCHR:

“… along with the BCH protest, another means to apply pressure is to get people handing out testimony and testifying against DCF and their abuse of power in the Jan 23rd public hearing at 11am in the Gardner Auditorium that I sent you. People can also bring in Free Justina and other signs so the legislators cannot ignore the message. You can be sure that DCF and child psych representatives will also be at that hearing.”

As you may have seen, the PR spokesperson for BCH. Rob Graham, released this statement last week:

“Though Boston Children’s is required by state law to report cases of suspected child maltreatment to the Department of Children and Families (DCF), DCF is solely responsible for investigating reports of suspected child maltreatment and for deciding whether to go to court to request temporary custody of a child. The Hospital never decides who has custody of a child in any case of alleged child maltreatment. ”

Looks like a noose to me. Saying DCF could investigate a report of “medical child abuse” is outrageous. There were a few articles in the Globe about DCF’s pitiful deficits in the medical expertise department, Dr. Gordon Harper, director of child and adolescent services DMH said: “everyone knows that DCF is amateurville in terms of medical expertise.”

So, I guess we should take comfort in knowing that BCH would first bar any of Justina’s doctors from participating in a real investigation to determine * if she had : 1)received unnecessary medical care that had harmed her, 2) there was evidence that her parent(s) had promoted this harmful unneeded care” (the strict, expert definition of medical child abuse referenced here);; yes, BCH blew off the doctors who could have and should have and actually wanted to participate in a round table discussion, debate, AND then BCH opts to turn over this complex medical case, complicated even more by their wiz bang idea to say Justina had somatoform disorder– THIS — train wreck of a case, they (BCH. Child protection team of ‘experts’) turn over to DCF!!

BCH points the finger at the agency taking the heat in the media for incompetence and abuse of power– AND then. states clearly that they, DCF is responsible for Justina’s ‘ward of the state’ status!

Back to “medical child abuse” accusation being the *cause* for removing parental rights, treating the parents like criminals and poor Justina like a political prisoner in a cold- war -era communist country — In light of the fact that there has been no evidence of either parent *promoting unneeded harmful medical care* and an ice cube’s chance in hell that DCF could investigate appropriately with NO medical/psychiatric oversight– WHAT exactly did BCH say?

My take is “We at BCH endorse and fully condone this action. Violating the human and civil rights of a child and her family without *due process* is a basis for successful psychiatric treatment, or rather exactly what we needed?”

I say BCH needed it, because they continually shot down any attempt– some more creative than others to get everything from straight up *second opinions* to a *full evaluation* from experts who claim some competence in developing a collaborative approach to the whole process AND absolutely promote *family involvement* in treatment of *medical child abuse*.

Well, needless to say exiling the family was top priority on Justina’s Bader treatment plan.– Though BCH claims DCF calls those shots–
And now we know that BCH lets the most medically deficient, incompetent agency around do this– while we all have pretty much figured out that DCF is tethered to the medical expertise of BCH.

So– illegal confinement on locked psych ward; violation of parents civil rights; deterioration in Justina’s health:physical, mental, emotional, spiritual — or rather BCH not proving their *dubious* means were for a *positive end*– at least not for Justina.

So, I am not alone is summising that since BCH can’t claim they needed to hold on to continue to do something *good for Justina,* they might just be holding her something *good Justina can do for them*. And judging by the swift and sure means Simona Bujoreanu initiated to grab her from their first encounter, and the fact that this “fairly new and inexperienced psychologist” (Swidey/Wen, Boston Globe 12/15-16) is publishing on somatoform disorder– GI symptoms caused by psychological disorder, is a big carrot– trying to prove Justina did NOT need a cecostomy tube would have been a big feather in her cap.

Holding Justina in a locked unit for at least a year with no evidence that she needs that level of psychiatric care AND excising(patent-ectomy)her parents who have not been proven guilty of medical child abuse . Why? 1) To complete a research protocol?, 2) To protect BCH from HUGE liabilities.
I say either or both!

Talking points can be refined to basics and exposure of central culprit achieved at the same time.
Additionally, exposing the corruption that exists within the deadly *triad*: BCH, DCF and Juvenile Court Judge(s) is clearly the goal at this point.

Anyone in the Boston area should consider coming into town for the public hearing this Thursday 1/23– for the meet and greet “our leaders in the child welfare system”!!

Sinead, I totally agree that this hearing on January 23 is very important for supporters of Justina to attend. Although I suspect that for people in Boston, you have given plenty of info about it, could you put more details in one place? Date, address, times, and what exactly the public will be allowed to do there. Thanks.

Sinead, sorry we missed you. I would be surprised if they were really keeping Justina there to do research on her. I’m sure they are doing nothing but imprisoning her.

I am wondering how much “guilt” has to do with it. It’s a simple concept I’ve been playing with that explains why these powerful institutions and higherup personnel are so relentless and refuse to back down. I have trouble believing they are stupid and don’t see the obvious. They do, but they feel guilty about the horrors that they have already done. Even apologizing in any way is to admit fault. They are obsessive about protecting their “reputations,” to the point of paranoia. To change their minds and say, “We were wrong,” they assume, makes them look weak and stupid. However, they should have done this a year ago, and never even gotten so far as to complete Justina’s transfer to Bader 5. Also, communication within these “hospitals” is slipshod, and this is their biggest red tape problem as far as I can see. One doc or administrator says something intended for another and it never gets “passed on.” They blame the patient ultimately. For instance, a fax fails and they never bother resending. Something as simple as that can change your whole life when you are stuck in these places.

You have no voice and they tell you nothing when you are being abused in a hospital, except you overhear them murmuring outside your room at times. They huddle like a football team and talk about patients right in the hallway. You are scared, you want to cry out to anyone who will listen. You have no clue and someone is right there listening to every phone call you make. They will do anything to keep you from squealing. You keep begging them to stop, pleading, telling them you’ll do anything if only they will stop being so mean. You are so weak anyway, you cannot rise from your bed. You want peace. If only you had one private moment…you are living for that day you can be alone and free. You hope more than anything for someone, anyone to believe you. For now, no one does. They only keep telling you, through their actions and every word, spoken and unspoken, that you are crazy and all your claims of abuse are only delusion.

“The Globe said that Pelletier was moved to the Wayside Youth and Family Support Network in Framingham, though she remains under the care of Boston Children’s doctors as they find another care team to take over the West Hartford teen’s case.”

As long as she is in a mental health type facility, that is not good. Please tell me why I am wrong.

I was wondering whether speaking out would make things worse. I wondered about other means of settling it. Mediation, etc. Wondering what concessions would be expected of Mr. and Mrs. Pelletier simply to have Justina come home.
This feels like a punch in the gut. To feel powerless and morally outraged.
It’s a new twist, but the same basic theme. Individuals don’t seem to matter. Why was Justina singled out? Does this have anything to do with eugenics? Is she considered expendable? Is this politically motivated as a test case to make clear that parents DON”T have rights? This is not the America to which I have pledged allegiance……………I remember how wrong things went when we took our daughter to the hospital thinking she would be helped, but things went very wrong. A Bad dream. Wish we could all wake up.

That reminds me of situations were people are mistreated by the police and as a result, resist, which then leads them to be charged with disorderly conduct because essentially, they resisted abusive behavior.

So because the parents were upset about their kid essentially being kidnapped and seeing her medical condition deteriorate to the point were they are concerned about her dying, they are pegged as difficult to work with.